Fayette schools will stop limited in-person learning before Thanksgiving as COVID-19 cases grow

Superintendent Manny Caulk said Thursday that by Nov. 20, Fayette County Schools would suspend the limited in-person classes that the district has offered to some students since October.

Lexington broke city COVID-19 records Thursday, reporting 255 new cases. Fayette County is considered by the state to be in the most critical red zone, which recommends virtual learning at public schools but also allows for the two-hour targeted instruction.

Since Oct. 19, Fayette County Public Schools has provided targeted services for small groups of students at elementary, middle and high schools and special programs.

“Each school sets its own schedule, but across the district we expect the last day for targeted services to be on or before November 20,” Caulk said in a news release.

He explained why:

“Looking ahead, we recognize that Thanksgiving is one of the biggest family holidays of the year.”

“We have to anticipate the likelihood that families will travel or gather and unfortunately, we know those activities could drive community spread,” he said. “Ideally, we would want to pause targeted services for 14 days after Thanksgiving break to mitigate the risk and give people time to quarantine after potential exposure.”

But noting that schedule would have the district restarting targeted services during the last week of school before winter break, when classes are wrapping up and exams have begun, Caulk said, “we have made the decision to begin winding down targeted services before the Thanksgiving holiday.”

Though the Fayette County community has been in the state’s red designation for incidence rates since Oct. 28, Fayette County schools continued to provide classes to close to 4,000 students each week. Targeted services are allowed under the state guidelines “at school discretion” when a community is red, the district news release said.

“We have had tremendous success, and credit our instructional and support staff at every level for all they have done to coordinate these offerings as well as our families for your support and flexibility,” Caulk said.

While cases of COVID-19 have risen in Fayette County, and there have been cases among students and staff who participated in the on-campus services, there has been no transmission between students or between students and staff, and those isolated cases have not interrupted services district-wide, Caulk said.

Teaching and learning through at-home learning -- NTI: 2DL --will continue until the last day of school before winter break on Dec. 18. Some limited special education services may also continue.

On Monday, Fayette County schools sent registration forms to families for second semester, asking families if they wanted their student to attend in-person classes in January or continue with remote learning.

When school starts again in January, the school district plans to have students whose families selected in-person instruction back on campus, while students whose families selected remote instruction will learn virtually. If Fayette County’s incidence rates are in the red as it gets closer to January, then in-person learning could start as NTI: 2DL until cases decrease, Caulk saif.

In that case, the district could offer targeted services again, since that is allowed for communities in the red. If Fayette County is in the state’s green, yellow or orange range, the district will be back in school.

Fayette County School Board Chairwoman Stephanie Spires said Caulk decided on his own to stop the limited two-hour classes due to the spread of coronavirus in Lexington.

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School board members said at a Monday meeting that once in-person classes begin, the district should follow state recommendations to return to remote, at-home learning, during times that Lexington is considered to be in the red zone with a critical number of cases .

Prior to Thursday, Jessie Clark Middle School was one Fayette County school that alerted families in an email this week that targeted instruction would be suspended for a time.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 6:29 PM.