Superintendent overrules Central Ky. school board, says no to reopening classrooms

The Jessamine County Board of Education voted 3-2 Monday night to begin the 2020-2021 school year on Aug. 26th with the options of in-person instruction or enrollment in a Virtual Learning Academy.

But Jessamine County Superintendent Matt Moore said in a statement that he “made the decision to exercise my authority to utilize” the district’s extended non-traditional instruction, or NTI, digital learning program and delay in-person instruction for at least the first two weeks of school.

“COVID-19 cases in our community have recently spiked and according to the Jessamine County Health Department, our county’s Case Rate (cases per 100,000 of population per week) has increased 650% in the last three weeks,” Moore said.

School board chairman Steven Scrivner said Tuesday morning that “ it’s a difficult situation for the superintendent to be in, and it speaks to how truly unprecedented the situation we’re dealing with is.”

“The district has an obligation to ensure the safety of our students and that’s historically been the domain of the superintendent, not the board,” Scrivner said. “While some board members may be disappointed in his action, I don’t feel like there’s any animosity toward him. In the end, we all want the same outcome - a safe and successful school year.”

On Wednesday, Aug. 26th, all Jessamine students will begin with home learning. Fayette County Public Schools also will start, but it will have at least six weeks of at-home learning.

Moore said the Jessamine district spent more than 360 hours this summer overhauling the extended NTI program and had a new system with enhanced communication with families, a much more robust learning experience and more consistent expectations for students and staff.

The district is also setting up a Virtual Learning Academy.

“While I would love to be able to tell you how long we will be utilizing extended NTI digital learning, at this point, I’m only able to tell you that as soon as we determine that it’s safe to begin in-person instruction, we will do so,” Moore said.

He said the decision to begin the year with extended NTI was not easy and he understood and regretted that it would cause hardship for some families.

“As much as or maybe even more than anyone else, I want to bring our students back into our buildings, where I know that we can best support, teach, and care for them,” he said. “ I cannot let that desire for face-to-face interaction overshadow the very real threat posed by the spread of COVID-19. “

“Beginning in-person instruction during a surge of positive cases in our community is just too great of a risk and one that I’m not willing to take when lives depend on it,” Moore said.

Also Monday night, the Clark County Board of Education voted to begin the 2020-21 school year with distance learning for all students for the first nine weeks of the school year.

Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday that Kentucky has a high rate of cases and all schools should be looking at the data. He said he supported superintendents who want more time before starting in-person instruction.

“If we get closer to that third week of August and we are seeing an escalation or not what we consider better control then we may have further recommendations,” he said.

Beshear said the state was also working on a pilot project with a district he didn’t identify of testing teachers for COVID-19.

This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 8:33 AM.