Fayette schools need to stop stringing us along and present solid plan for return

On Dec. 14, Fayette County Public Schools released their latest “MATRIX” for returning students to in-person learning during the 2020-21 school year. Though unsurprisingly short on details, this new matrix extended the range for which in-person learning would be considered to a “red” zone of 25-40 cases per 100k residents averaged over 7 days. Fayette County had an incidence rate of 67.9 that day. Since then the numbers have dropped below 40 and slid back up again (we likely won’t know where we really stand for a couple of weeks thanks to the holidays).

However, we are all fully aware that having the numbers is only half the battle—there also must be a plan. The numbers allowed for a return back in October, but the lack of a viable plan from the district kept our kids stuck behind their screens. The new plan is promised for Jan. 5, with a return to in-person learning possible on Jan. 11. Having been burned in the past, I reached out to see what was being done to ensure this new plan would work. No additional info was given, but the board chair said, “I can assure you that the schools and FCPS administration are working together to have a solid plan to present on January 5th that would be able to be implemented on the 11th.” I hope this statement is true, but the cynic in me is still unsure.

What we do know about said plan is that it now incorporates the term “graduated.” Like many other educational buzzwords, this doesn’t really mean anything (see “hybrid”). But we were told the following in an email from FCPS: “Rather than starting all students back on the same day, consideration will be given to students who have never been in their schools before and those who may need more time to learn routines.” This strikes me as odd, seeing as how year-after-year we start all students on the same day in August no problem. This is also concerning as it seems siblings will be split up and families will be left scrambling to find childcare for half their kids (not to mention having to explain to a 4th grader why their kindergarten-aged sister can finally quit Zoom, but they can’t).

Yet overall, the biggest issue before us is what it’s been all along — acknowledging that the science doesn’t back up keeping kids at home. Every expert has gone on record that kids should be in school. Of course, they always couch it with “if community transmission is low,” but that phrase has no consensus definition and little data backing up that it makes a difference. Academic and social development be damned; mental health, abuse, neglect and inequalities no longer matter. This has become a political scam run by labor unions and their partisan allies, telling us tax-paying parents that we’re heartless if we oppose them. If the district is just dribbling out the clock until staff are vaccinated (as many suspect), just say so rather than continuing to string families along.

At some point this has to stop. The lack of communication and compassion from FCPS has been appalling. Public schools are a common good, paid for by the community, that exist to serve our families. Most teachers have been outstanding and done everything they can to make the best of a terrible situation. Meanwhile, highly paid administrators have worked in secret, rolling out buzzwords but nothing actionable, leaving our children and families on a limb for dubious reasons.

Here’s hoping (but not hopeful) that 2021 brings some welcome change.

Todd Burus is a mathematics and statistics professor and free-lance data scientist. He is also the facilitator of the Let Them Learn Fayette County on Facebook.

This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 10:56 AM.