‘It has crushed my soul.’ State presses Ky. school districts to delay in-person learning

Madison County was among the more than a dozen Kentucky school districts that contemplated not following Gov. Andy Beshear’s Monday recommendation to delay in-person instruction until late September in the coronavirus pandemic.

But by Tuesday, district officials said on social media that Kentucky Interim Education Commissioner Kevin Brown made it clear that districts “have no room to sway from the governor’s recommendation.”

And on Thursday, a district post said that “under advisement from legal counsel and following a meeting with the Kentucky Department of Education today, Madison County Schools will begin school on Wednesday, Sept. 2, in a virtual format.”

“The district will return to its original 3-option plan including in-person instruction on Monday, Sept. 28, when the mandate is lifted,” Madison officials said, citing extremely difficult and unfair decisions.

Madison board member Lori Cobb was in tears at the Thursday board meeting, saying it was important to get the district’s children back into the classroom and saying not returning had put she and her family in a difficult situation.

“It has crushed my soul that our governor has put us in this situation,” Cobb said at the meeting.

Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Toni Konz Tatman confirmed Friday that department officials made phone calls to Crittenden County Schools, Bowling Green Independent Schools, Green County Schools, Warren County Public Schools, Hickman County Schools, Barren County Schools, Williamstown Independent Schools, Madison County Schools and Cumberland County Schools.

Tatman said phone calls were scheduled Friday afternoon with Marshall County, Graves County, Hardin County, Boone County and Ft. Thomas Independent districts.

“In the phone calls with the superintendents and other local school leaders, Interim Commissioner Brown and Lu Young, Chair of the Kentucky Board of Education, as well as other state health and education officials, are participating in a conversation where they are listening to the concerns of local school leaders,” said Tatman. “The goal of the conversation is to make sure the district understands the facts around the recommendation to delay in-person instruction and to go over our concerns that exist if districts do not follow the recommendation.”

Tatman said while the Kentucky Department of Education “certainly wants all districts to follow the recommendation based on the health and safety concerns for not only the people in our school buildings, but also our parents and communities, these phone conversations have not been threatening in any fashion.”

Tatman said she did not immediately know if any districts would decide to delay in-person learning after the conversations. Catholic schools and some private schools in the state, as of Friday, planned to reopen with face-to-face instruction before September 28.

“While I value and honor decisions about the 2020-2021 school year being feasible, practical and tailored to the needs of each community, we also must balance this with the lessons we are learning from other states that tried to open too soon and now are faced with having to close,” Brown said Friday in a statement. “These kinds of actions create more complications by having to start and stop in-person instruction. In the end, we all want what’s best for our children despite how difficult this might be.”

Brown, at a virtual town hall for school board members on Thursday, asked districts not to return to in-person learning before Beshear’s recommended date of Sept. 28 because coronavirus is at an all-time high.

“The chances that you will successfully implement your reopening plan... is not high,” he said.

But Brown said districts that were insistent on reopening in person against Beshear’s recommendations, including Green County which expects to open Monday, would need to have COVID-19 testing for students and staff in place. Brown said there could be issues with a district’s liability insurance carrier if they resume in-person learning against advice.

Districts would have to make sure they adhered to health protocols with fidelity, he said.

Beshear said at a news conference Friday afternoon that there were 77 new cases among children under 18, including three school age children in Barren County and another three in Hardin County.

“We are seeing significant increases in our school age children and I hope that makes everybody pause. Commit to not experimenting with our kids,” he said.

Beshear said he wanted to get kids back in class.He said he hoped schools that return against his recommendation will be honest about clusters or cases once they start. Beshear said he thought that some district administrators were listening to state education officials.

Meanwhile, Madison County Schools officials said in their statement that they understand the frustration and inconvenience the decision caused the majority of families in the community.

“And we hope you all know how immensely disappointed we are to postpone in-person instruction,” the statement said. “We remain committed to our belief that in-person instruction is what is best for kids, especially after being isolated for such a long period of time. We will continue to prepare to have students in the buildings as quickly as possible and will welcome them with the same enthusiasm no matter what date the calendar reads.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 4:47 PM.