‘Difficult decision.’ Fayette schools will have its third day of at-home learning Wednesday

Fayette County Public Schools, which has not yet returned in-person from winter break, will have its third at-home learning day Wednesday in the aftermath of last week’s winter storm.

“We have made the difficult decision to designate Wednesday, January 15, as a Non-Traditional Instruction or NTI Day,” Superintendent Demetrus Liggins told parents Tuesday evening.

“As you know, the FCPS transportation team took buses out today to test the safety of our bus routes. Many of our drivers experienced slick road conditions, with some having to even be rescued by tow trucks,” he said.

“Today, as many as 119 streets and neighborhoods were identified as inaccessible for buses, including Sandersville, Southpoint, Castlewood, Highland Park, and Carducci. This equates to thousands of students who need access to bus transportation to attend school.”

“We have shared these specific locations with the city and will continue to work with them as they improve roadways.,” Liggins said. “Our team has also investigated the possibility of establishing alternative bus routes, however, moving bus routes to treated streets would place many of our students on major roadways and in busy intersections, which increases the risk of injury.”

Parents had asked for alternative snow bus routes at Monday’s school board meeting.

“Safety is our number one priority and will continue to be in every decision we make at Fayette County Public Schools,” said Liggins.

He said it was important that students arrive safely to school each day. “At this time, I simply do not feel confident that can be accomplished,” said Liggins.

The school district also had four traditional snow days last week.

The topic of road conditions and how they are affecting school transportation was discussed at Tuesday’s Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council work session.

Lexington Environmental Quality and Public Works Commissioner Nancy Albright said the school system gave the city its bus routes last spring, and the city started to tackle those routes last week to ensure they were clear.

But Albright said the city got more roads from the school district Monday and Tuesday that the school system said needed to be cleared.

Herald-Leader staff writer Beth Musgrave contributed to this report.