Fayette school board will decide Monday whether to continue making masks mandatory

At a Monday meeting, Fayette school board members will consider requiring universal indoor masking for all district teachers, staff, students, and visitors amid the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.

A mask requirement in Fayette County Public Schools remains in effect and was not immediately impacted by the Kentucky General Assembly’s decision to kill a statewide school mask mandate Thursday night, board chairman Tyler Murphy said on social media after the legislature passed the new law. It gives school boards five working days to decide if they want their own mask requirements.

If approved, the Fayette school board action would codify and continue the existing requirement, which has been in place since the beginning of the school year, he said.

“I want to assure our community that FCPS and our Board remain committed to prioritizing the health and well-being of our students, staff, and families while maximizing safe, in-person learning ... for our students,” Murphy said in his statement. “We will continue to pursue whatever tools are available to us to fulfill this commitment and consider any additional action necessary to do so.”

Later, Murphy indicated in a post that he supported continuing requiring masks at schools.

“What we’ve witnessed in Frankfort this week has been embarrassing and it’s unfortunate local boards of education have been caught in the middle. But I hope we can set the petty politics driving actions in Frankfort aside in our own communities and do what’s right for the children, staff, and families we’re elected to serve, “Murphy said.

The Kentucky General Assembly gave final approval Thursday to Senate Bill 1 that eliminates the state’s mask mandate in K-12 schools and doesn’t give districts any more than 10 non-traditional instruction days that allow district-wide learning from home.

Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill late Thursday night, but the legislature overrode his decision. The bill carried an emergency clause, which means it took effect immediately.

State Rep. Killian Timoney, a Fayette County Public Schools employee from Lexington, confirmed Friday morning that he was the only Republican in the House of Representatives to vote against Senate Bill 1.

Timoney conceded that other provisions in the bill are needed and critical for the day-to-day functioning of schools

“However, I believe, any action to compromise any COVID mitigation strategy when the Delta variant is ravaging the state, would not be appropriate and ill-timed,” he said. “I am hoping that the variant is peaking soon and that we can turn the corner with this crisis to get to a more manageable condition. We are completely prepared to come back in January and adjust our plan dealing with COVID 19.

“My ultimate concern is saving as many lives as possible,” Timoney said.

On Thursday, Beshear reported 5,252 new cases of the coronavirus in Kentucky, 36 new deaths, a positivity rate above 14 percent, and new records for hospitalizations and Kentuckians on a ventilator.

“We must do more to protect ourselves and each other — not less,” he said.

Since Aug. 9, Lexington has had more than 6,300 new COVID cases in one month. Nearly 1,000 of those are in kids 5-14.

A statement from the Kentucky Education Association Thursday night said provisions of SB 1 don’t adequately address the health and safety of Kentucky’s educators and students.

“Superintendents and local boards of education now have five days to decide what they are willing to do to keep their employees and students safe. Let us hope that they make decisions based on facts and not emotion, “ the KEA statement said. “Educators are worried for themselves and their students and stand ready to work with local school districts to keep our students and communities healthy.”

As of Friday night, less than 24 hours after the General Assembly passed a bill to eliminate the mask mandate in Kentucky public schools, at least 31 districts had announced they will continue to require all students, staff and visitors to wear masks, the Kentucky School Boards Association reported.

With Boyd County school officials announcing on Friday that classrooms would shut down for a week without learning because of COVID, at least 41 Kentucky districts have stopped in-person learning for various time periods this year. Fayette has kept its school buildings open so far, and Superintendent Demetrus Liggins previously told lawmakers that because of the size of the district, closing would be an “untenable solution.”

Beshear said at a news conference Friday afternoon that lawmakers made the wrong decision on masking in schools.

For individual districts, “there is only one decision, one right answer where you don’t endanger children and your entire community. This thing is burning through Kentucky like nothing we’ve ever seen,” Beshear said. “If you don’t have universal masking in your school system, your kids won’t be in school.”

The legislation does not give districts additional non-traditional instruction days, but it creates 20 temporary remote instruction days through the end of the year for a specific class, grade, building or entire school stricken by COVID-19. That will help prevent an entire district from shutting down when a COVID-19 outbreak happens among a particular group within the district.

The measure also requires local health departments to develop a test-to-stay model for school districts. With that model, a student who may have been exposed to COVID-19 at school gets rapid-tested for the virus each morning before class instead of quarantining.

SB 1 will make it easier for retired teachers to return to the classroom, in some cases as soon as 30 days after retiring. The retirees could make up to 10 percent of a district’s teaching staff under the bill.

Another provision helps stabilize school funding. Many districts were concerned about budget shortfalls because state funding is based, in part, on average daily attendance. The legislation will allow school districts to waive a requirement of 170 instructional days in favor of 1,062 instructional hours. That will let schools adjust starting and ending times to make up for days lost to COVID.

Liggins, Murphy and top Jefferson County school officials did not get some things from the General Assembly’s special session that they asked lawmakers for in a Sept. 3 joint letter, including additional NTI days.

From the first day of school until Sept. 3, Fayette schools had 822 students and 137 staff members test positive for COVID-19, which has led to quarantines for 5,858 students and 67 staff,

Shortages of teachers, substitute teachers, bus drivers, bus monitors, para-educators, custodial staff, and nutrition staff have been causing additional operational challenges.

On the second day of school and most school days since, FCPS had to cancel morning bus routes and delay after-school runs.

Teachers are giving up their planning time to cover classes for absent colleagues while school and district administrative staff are serving meals in the cafeteria.

“These challenges are straining our systems, but we have found ways to keep our schools open because of our commitment to provide in-person learning for our students,” Liggins told lawmakers and Beshear. “While several school districts have closed their schools, the size of our communities and complex nature of our school systems make that an untenable solution... the situation is dire, and our teachers and staff are already at their wits’ end just a few weeks into the school year.”

To help address the severe bus driver shortage, the superintendents wanted lawmakers to reconsider requiring applicants to have a high school diploma or GED. They also wanted relief from a state law that currently requires classroom doors to remain closed during instruction to help with air quality and circulation.

Lawmakers declined to address those issues.

Kentucky School Boards Association spokesman Josh Shoulta said public education advocates are left pondering Friday morning whether the legislation did enough for schools, but he said the special session made clear the role school boards must continue to play in overcoming the challenges of the pandemic.

“Disagreements over COVID-19 policy have become heated, fueled at times by misinformation and uncertainty from a more potent variant of the virus,” Shoulta said. “There is, however, near-universal agreement by education stakeholders on two fronts. There is consensus around keeping our students safely in school as much as possible, and there is understanding that we all must do our parts to minimize the spread of the virus to make that happen.”

Shoulta said one of the most effective strategies to maintaining uninterrupted in-person instruction is to increase Kentucky’s vaccination rate.

Meanwhile, Kentucky Department of Education officials announced Friday that the state will use up to $8.8 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to provide reimbursements to districts that reward staff members who get vaccinated.

All full- and part-time employees of public school districts are eligible for a one-time vaccination incentive payment of $100 after being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The reimbursement is for employees who previously have been vaccinated, as well as those who have received their full vaccinations by Dec. 1, 2021. There will be enough funding to reimburse districts for approximately 88,000 local school district staff, a news release said.

This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 7:50 AM.