Fayette County schools won’t return to in-person learning until week of February 1 at earliest

Fayette County Public Schools will continue to have remote-only learning through at least February 1, Acting Superintendent Marlene Helm said Tuesday night.

Fayette County currently has a seven-day average of 235 new cases, district officials said. As in recent weeks, that average falls in the worst stage of the district’s return-to-school matrix, a stage that calls for remote learning only.

“Our average daily cases have been more than 200 for the past nine days, after almost three weeks of a steady decline. In the first 11 days of 2021, we have had 117 students and 63 employees test positive for COVID-19,” Helm said.

District officials are announcing decisions each Tuesday on whether to return to in-person learning, largely based on community spread of cases.

At the same time, other decisions are being played out, such as allowing winter sports to continue and arranging COVID-19 vaccinations for school staffs.

Fayette, Kentucky’s second largest district, has not returned its more than 40,000 students to in-person learning this academic year, citing a high number of coronavirus cases.

A few thousand students attended in-person learning for two hours each day for a few weeks in the fall and some special needs students are receiving in-person services now. Otherwise, Fayette students have been learning virtually since the pandemic began in March 2020.

That’s been a point of contention for some parents who want their children to return to the classroom. Smaller public districts in the state have returned to in-person learning for periods of time, as have private schools in Lexington.

The Kentucky School Boards Association in a Twitter post last week said at least 122 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts began in-person classes on or after Jan. 11. Twenty-eight districts were already holding in-person classes with one more scheduled to begin last Thursday. Seventy-three districts are using a hybrid schedule with students attending on alternating days.

Helm said Tuesday that data indicates the district should continue remote learning the weeks of Jan. 19 through 22 and Jan. 25 through 29.

She also said:

▪ The district’s “goal” is to begin graduated in-person learning the week of Feb. 1 through 5. Data will determine whether Fayette schools will begin a phased-in return starting with grades K-2 and adding other grades in subsequent weeks, or whether the district will offer additional services for smaller groups of students.

The district has previously said that after Kindergarten, first- and second-grade students return in person, grades 3 through 5, 6, 9 and 12 will be next, followed by grades 7, 8, 10 and 11. Preschool students will be the final group to go back to classrooms. The district will continue to provide remote learning five days a week for students whose families prefer that option.

▪ In the next week, Helm said school buses will be on the road as drivers and monitors begin practicing their routes to prepare for February.

▪ The district will continue to distribute free meals, support families with basic needs and provide social emotional and mental health support. Details are at www.fcps.net/gethelp.

“We are touched by the very personal stories many of our families have voiced, and we want you to know that we genuinely share your desire to return to in-person learning,” Helm said.

Todd Burus, a leader of the Facebook group Let them Learn in Fayette County that wants an in-person return, said the school board’s decision on Tuesday was disappointing but not surprising.

“We’re glad to see that Fayette County case numbers from over the weekend seem to be moving in the right direction, while remaining nervous knowing UK is about to resume surveillance testing,” Burus said. “We are hopeful that the district will seek help in how to factor in the large influx of testing that’s about to occur and place the numbers that come out of it in the appropriate context, unlike what happened during the fall.”

At Monday’s school board planning meeting, board member Christy Morris suggested that school board members ask state lawmakers if Fayette County Public Schools staff could be “prioritized” to receive COVID-19 vaccines since Fayette County students had not yet been able to return to widespread in-person learning.

On Monday, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said in a message to people on campus that the state had asked UK to help with vaccinations for employees in Fayette County Public Schools.

He said officials with UK’s Emergency Operations Center and UK Health Corps are working on that plan and coordinating with the school district.

Meanwhile, new board member Tom Jones, a former Fayette County principal, said at Monday’s school board meeting that he had received questions from parents who are “upset because athletics has been allowed to continue and we are not in school.”

Jones said he hoped district officials could provide more explanation on that issue. Helm said it would be discussed at the January 25 monthly board meeting.

High school boys and girls basketball began play Jan. 4 across the state, though the Kentucky High School Athletic Association delayed practice and play for more than a month.

While there have been dozens of boys’ and girls’ games canceled due to COVID concerns, a majority of games are being played.

Cancellations have included Lexington public school teams. Lafayette High School’s girls team had a “COVID cancellation” for its season opener but has played since. Henry Clay’s girls team has yet to start and has had two cancellations. And the Georgetown News-Graphic has reported that Scott County’s girls’ game Tuesday with Bryan Station would be postponed due to Station being in “COVID protocols.”

Fayette County Schools has not responded to recent requests to comment on COVID issues regarding athletics.

As was the case with fall sports, the KHSAA and the state departments of public health and education have made recommendations about playing during the pandemic, but none of those recommendations are binding and it’s up to each individual school district to decide whether to allow sports to go forward.

During the fall, the KHSAA, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Education recommended schools in “red” COVID-19 counties shut down their athletics programs, but did not force them to. Those recommendations remain for winter sports.

As the COVID-19 rate spiked later in the fall, dozens of school districts canceled regular season games, but almost all allowed their teams to play in the postseason in football, volleyball and soccer. Each of those seasons finished with state championships held.

On Nov. 15, Fayette County Schools paused all winter sports activities ahead of the KHSAA’s later move to do the same. Only postseason football was allowed to continue. Winter activities were allowed to resume in December in conjunction with the KHSAA’s decision to do so.

Many school districts, including Scott County Public Schools, are allowing their basketball teams to play when they did not allow their fall sports teams to play in the same conditions. Fayette County never halted fall sports due to the county’s “red” status, but some teams were sidelined temporarily by COVID-19 contacts within the program.

Basketball cancellations, so far, have been due both to actual cases or contacts or, more rarely, because of district concerns over the rate of community spread, as is the case for all Jefferson County Public School teams.

JCPS is only allowing limited conditioning for its teams and has not set a timetable on when it will allow them to play. JCPS contains a number of the state’s most highly regarded teams entering this season.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 7:16 PM.