‘I’m wearing two hats.’ Kids of KY teachers go to school with them for virtual learning

At Wilmore Elementary in Jessamine County this week, Rachel Butler sat in one part of her classroom working virtually with her students while her own children sat across the room, “safe and protected while I’m able to do my job.”

“I’m wearing two hats,” said Butler. Daughter Layla, 10, and son Noah, 6, each with their own Chromebooks and headphones, interacted virtually with their own teachers at Wilmore Elementary who are providing live instruction from elsewhere in the building.

In the morning, the kids enter the building with masks on, sign into a log, have their temperatures taken, go directly to their mother’s classroom and stay there with the door shut. They eat a packed lunch in their mother’s classroom.

Principal Dawn Floyd said 12 or 13 teachers at her school who are teaching virtually from their classrooms are also bringing their own children to work. According to social media posts, at least 17 school districts in Kentucky are allowing it.

It’s another “first” for many Kentucky schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

Jessamine County Superintendent Matt Moore said all staff can bring their children to work during virtual learning. Moore said the district is not returning to in-person learning at least until Sept. 9.

“We are allowing our staff to bring our children to school. We’ve given them all of the guidance of our expectations. We want to make sure that staff and students are following all of our protocol, temperature checks, the screenings, the social distancing, the masks, “ he said.

Butler finds it “a blessing and a help to be able to have them with me.” When her students take breaks, she monitors her own children’s academic progress and assignments.

In several Kentucky school districts, it’s typical that children of teachers are not allowed to leave their parents’ classroom except to go to the bathroom.

At Wilmore Elementary, 10-year-old Hattie Jayne Shouse is working virtually from her mom’s classroom. As a student at Wilmore Elementary, she communicates with teachers virtually who are in the same building.

“She wears her head phones so she doesn’t have to listen to me,” said teacher Whitney Shouse. “It’s gone really well so far.”

“I love it,” said Hattie Jayne. “I get to spend time with my mom ...instead of being in a classroom away from her.”

“It is helping me a ton, as a mom,” said Shouse. “It’s a good policy because it allows us to focus on our job completely and not worry about if we need to find an emergency babysitter.”

Woodford County teachers also can have their school aged children in their classroom, Superintendent Scott Hawkins said.

Moore said if his district had not allowed teachers to work with their own children, some teachers weren’t going to have solutions that would get them back into the classrooms in the 2020-2021 school year.

In Scott County, Superintendent Kevin Hub said as long as teachers keep their own children with them in their classroom “we don’t see any risk to the health and safety of anybody else that’s in the building at that time.”

Teachers report to principals when they leave for the day so their rooms get sanitized, Hub said.

When it comes to bringing their children into their classroom for virtual learning, “some teachers are going to do it most of the time, some teachers won’t do it at all, and some teachers will do it occasionally,” he said.

Scott County schools will begin virtual learning Sept. 8 and plan to start Monday, Oct. 12, in person.

Fayette County Schools officials did not respond Friday morning about whether teachers were allowed to bring their children to school during virtual learning.

Maintaining two roles as a teacher and mom during virtual learning did not go as well for Kassi Sims, who took a year off without pay this week from Boyle County Schools after teaching Special Education for 18 years. The mother of 5 children, 4 of whom are school-aged currently, said “there was no way for me to teach my special needs students and also work with my own four kids. “

“Just recently my district said we could bring our own children into the building to work but I had already resigned. Our children would have to stay in our classrooms at all times from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. while we delivered content virtually. It just wasn’t going to work for my family and me,” she said.

This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 12:16 PM.