Lexington’s Dixie Elementary moves to remote learning for rest of the week due to COVID

Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Demetrus Liggins made a “preemptive” decision Tuesday to shift all students at Dixie Magnet Elementary to remote learning for the rest of this week -- Wednesday through Friday -- to curb any possible spread of COVID-19, district officials said.

Dixie, in Lexington, plans to resume a normal, in-person schedule on Monday, Sept. 20.

Liggins’ said he wanted to stop the spread of COVID after several Dixie students and teachers developed symptoms and tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday at school. In a Covid newsletter Liggins said eight students and staff in the same grade level at Dixie tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the entire campus was switched to remote learning for the rest of the week.

In all, 1347 Fayette students were in quarantine Tuesday, an increase over recent days. There were 250 new quarantines Tuesday districtwide, 54 new positive student cases and 8 new staff cases.

Liggins said Fayette district officials have discussed whether to require proof of vaccination or regular negative testing for employees and are waiting for more federal guidance. The Biden Administration is requiring such a policy for employers of more than 100 people. The Jefferson County Public Schools board approved such a measure Tuesday night.

In addition, many students in other grade levels tested positive last week, and 130 students were placed in quarantine in the past two weeks. Other factors were the open concept construction of Dixie’s building and the large numbers of siblings affected. According to the Dashboard, Edythe J. Hayes Middle School also had four new student cases Tuesday and one new staff case. Henry Clay High School had six new student cases and Lafayette High School three on Tuesday, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard.

Dixie is the first Fayette school to be moved to remote learning after a new state law passed allowing only 20 remote learning days through December.

The new state law passed during a recent special session of the General Assembly allowed for individual schools or classes to have remote learning. Schools did not get additional NTI days or learning from home days under the bill.

Liggins said the new law’s provisions on limited remote learning don’t benefit the district as a whole. The district only has 17 more days in which individual schools or classes can move to remote learning. The district also has ten NTI days that don’t have to be made up.

“It is not nearly the amount of flexibility that I think a district of our size and complexity really needs,” Liggins said.

At Dixie, all students will take home their Chromebooks and receive instruction via Zoom. “Expectations about class participation and attendance remain in place while we are learning remotely,” Principal Cynthia Bruno said in a message to families. At times during the day, students and teachers will be on the screen together, Liggins said.

Before the law allowing limited remote learning was enacted, at least 40 Kentucky school districts had shut down for various time periods this year due to a resurging pandemic. Some districts offered no learning during the closures.

Liggins said the decision to close specific schools or classes would be made day by day. He said the Fayette school district was prioritizing in-person instruction and the closures would be a “last resort.”

He said the decision to shut down in-person learning at Dixie was not ideal but it was not done in haste and it was done out of an abundance of caution.

The new state law from the Republican-led General Assembly also lifted a statewide mask mandate over the objections of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 53 percent of Kentucky’s 171 school districts announced they will continue to require all students, staff and visitors to wear masks after SB1 goes into effect on Friday eliminating the statewide mask mandate in Kentucky public schools, the Kentucky School Boards Association said.

This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 3:43 PM.