Small groups of Lexington elementary students could return to school for a few hours Oct. 19

Small groups of elementary students could be brought into Fayette schools starting the week of Oct. 19 for two hours at a time of tutoring, special education and to supplement at home-learning, the Fayette County Public Schools board decided Monday.

That is contingent on the board seeing a more specific plan from district staff at an Oct. 12 meeting.

Individual schools will decide whether to bring the small groups back for “targeted services.” All students would have to be offered the classes and students who are struggling with at home learning could be prioritized. Technical education instruction and mental health or academic counseling are also reasons that small groups would convene. The classes would be two hours or less.

Superintendent Manny Caulk called the plan “a new normal” as Lexington tries to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Andy Beshear said at his Tuesday news conference that the board decision “fits with the advice that public health has provided.”

Kindergarten through fifth grade students could begin returning the week of Oct. 19 for the targeted services. The week of Nov. 2, middle and high school students would return for the two hour classes. No more than 15 total people would be in a classroom at one time. Only 15 percent of students at a school could be in the building at the same time. School bus transportation would be offered for the two hours of face-to-face instruction.

Athletics will continue as they are currently and won’t be affected by Monday’s vote, Caulk said, citing few coronavirus cases among student athletes.

With the targeted services classes, students would not eat at school, play on the playground or gather in large crowds as part of health precautions.

Also in the week of Nov. 2, the district could decide to begin a hybrid model, starting with K-5 and adding older students later. The phased return to in-person classes would mean students would attend daylong classes face-to face on a rotating basis two days each week and learn from home the other three days.

The hybrid instruction model that would be used later includes splitting students evenly into two groups, sending one group labeled AA Cohort 1, to in person class on Monday and Tuesday and another group labeled BB Cohort 2 to in-person class on Thursday and Friday.

All students would learn from home on Wednesday. AA Cohort 1 would learn from home Thursday and Friday. BB Cohort 2 would learn from home Monday and Tuesday.

Children from the same households would be assigned to the same cohort. There would be online platforms and project-based learning for students on the learning-from-home days. Schools would be deep cleaned between cohorts returning to class, Caulk said.

At the board meeting, several board members expressed frustration to Caulk that the district was not communicating better with the community, giving people more information about plans.

“We’ve got to make this digestible to the community,” said board vice-chair Ray Daniels. “We have not still effectively figured out how to communicate with our parents and our teachers.”

A social media group pushing for in-person learning called ‘Let Them Learn in Fayette County’ has been calling for Caulk’s resignation because they thought the district does not have a strong return plan in place.

Board chairwoman Stephanie Spires said before Monday’s meeting she would not ask for Caulk’s resignation because the district has been working on a plan to return to in-person classes. A number of new safety rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will be in place in all areas of daily instruction.

Under a new state color-coded metric system, deciding to open schools for the following school week can be based on the color level of the county at 8 p.m. every Thursday. Not all districts in Kentucky are following the new system and are going in- person despite a surge.

Fayette was on Monday at the orange level: Counties in that status are under a recommendation to take additional mitigation steps and prepare for possible remote learning as determined by school administrators in consultation with local public health officials.

But last Thursday, Fayette was in the red or critical level of disease activity in which schools were at that point advised to suspend in person school activities until the county returns to the yellow level of disease activity. Counties in the yellow status may have in person learning with heightened rules or remote learning.

State officials made a change Tuesday afternoon and said districts at the red level no longer have to reach the yellow level in order to return to in-person learning.

Caulk has said it will be difficult for Fayette to return to the yellow level with the University of Kentucky in session, and that’s why he recommended the initial two hour small-group instruction. He said district staff had only been able to work on the small group plan since mid-month when the metric was released.

Kentucky schools shut down in March as the pandemic emerged. Fayette began the school year virtually in late August. Beshear had asked Kentucky school districts to wait until Monday to return to in-person learning. Fayette schools had already decided to review positive Covid-19 cases in the county during this week -- and at regular intervals -- to help make a decision about when to return to in-person learning.

In a letter to families after the meeting Monday night, Caulk said to expect more information from their child’s school. That would include surveys about whether they would prefer an in-person hybrid instructional model or would rather continue with NTI: 2DL, the current at-home model.

Some families in Lexington are still concerned that it isn’t yet safe to return to in-person instruction.

School board members said a subset of parents are asking for their children to continue to learn from home virtually because of health concerns and some teachers with health concerns want to continue to teach from home. A firm decision was not made on that point Monday.

Daniels said until the school building doors open, some answers about how best to return won’t be known. He said many people in the community are anxious about that.

This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 9:39 PM.