LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Kentucky Department of Education has talked with leaders of nine school districts since Wednesday morning to reiterate why Gov. Andy Beshear recommended delaying the start of classroom instruction for the 2020-21 school year.
Toni Konz Tatman, KDE's interim communications director, said interim Education Commissioner Kevin Brown and Kentucky Board of Education Chairwoman Lu Young have been involved in such talks with Crittenden County Schools, Bowling Green Independent Schools, Green County Schools, Warren County Public Schools, Hickman County Schools, Barren County Schools, Williamstown Independent Schools, Madison County Schools and Cumberland County Schools.
The talks are part of the state's efforts to convince school districts to comply with Beshear's recommendation to delay the start of in-person learning until at least Sept. 28.
"As the governor said today the disease burden in Kentucky is at an all-time high as of today, and in that environment, it is not recommended that we implement our plans no matter how good the plans are," Brown said Thursday during a virtual town hall with school board members, shortly after Beshear announced the state's COVID-19 testing positivity rate was 5.67%.
"The plans are designed to where we hope the state will be on or around Sept. 28, where the virus is still present but we're not in an escalating period of community spread."
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said during the virtual town hall that Beshear's recommended delay had "nothing to do with the capability or incapability of school systems."
"It is where are are as a society with this virus escalating at this point," she said.
Many school districts are heeding Beshear's guidance and will begin the school year with distance learning.
However, some, such as Hardin County Schools, have declined to follow the governor's recommendation and plan to welcome students back to schools in the days ahead.
"We realize that he is looking at it from a state perspective," Hardin County Schools Superintendent Teresa Morgan said Thursday, a day after the district's board of education voted 4-1 to continue its reopening plans, which include an option for in-person instruction.
"But what we have said here in Hardin County is we know our community, and based on those individual conversations that our teachers had, we had a good handle on what our families were most comfortable with," she said.
The Archdiocese of Louisville and Christian Academy of Louisville have also announced plans to open the school year with options for classroom learning.
Tatman said Brown, Young and other state health and education officials have conducted "non-adversarial" conversations that "have not been threatening in any fashion" with superintendents and local public schools leaders to hear their concerns about Beshear's recommendation.
The governor called for schools to postpone the start of classroom instruction based on the recent escalation of COVID-19 cases and testing positivity rate, the growing number of infections among children, outbreaks experienced in other states that have reopened schools, and Kentucky families vacationing in states with high COVID-19 infection rates.
Brown had told superintendents Tuesday that he wanted to schedule such conference calls with school district leaders in hopes of convincing them to reconsider their plans to reopen their schools to classroom learning.
"It's to have a dialogue as a part of the education community," Brown said during Thursday's virtual town hall. "I'm very upfront. I want ... the result of the call to be that they say, 'Kevin, we've heard you. We're going to think on this.' And I would love to see a different outcome and that they would then follow the recommendation."
"I want you to know that this is a large concern and I want you all to make sure you're making and thinking through this decision," he said.
Brown on Tuesday also told superintendents that schools that reopen could be forced to close through options such as executive action, emergency regulations passed by the state education board or action by health departments.
He said Thursday that no state "enforcement squad" would show up to schools that reopen their classrooms before Sept. 28.
Instead, he told school board members that state education and public health leaders expect districts to "double down" on their reopening plans based on Kentucky's "Healthy at School" guidance document and work with their local health departments to explore the possibility of regularly testing students and staff for COVID-19.
"If you are not going to abide by the guidance and you're opening in this time frame, it is essential that you pursue some type of a testing protocol with your local health department," Brown said. "There's been a trial of testing of school district employees in one district, and I can tell you that we support making that happen in other districts, as does the governor's office and public health."
He also urged district leaders to consult with their liability insurance providers to discuss how opening schools during the pandemic could affect their policies.
Brown said he had heard that at least one Kentucky school district was told if it opened during this period "there could be issues" with coverage under its policy.
"I have not confirmed that, but that is of concern to me," he said.
On Wednesday, Beshear said he would only take steps to close school buildings in coordination with local health departments if there are severe COVID-19 outbreaks or if districts refuse to help address flare ups.
At the moment, school district leaders can't rely on local COVID-19 testing positivity rates as they navigate the 2020-21 school year during the pandemic.
Dr. Connie White, deputy commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said laboratories are only required to report positive cases by law. The state eventually developed a way for laboratories to voluntarily report total testing figures, but those numbers are not delineated by county, she said.
"All we have at the end of the day is the total number of tests done across the state of Kentucky," White said.
The state is working to get laboratories to enter all testing data into an electronic reporting system, she said.
"We will have much better regional and county information, but right now we are getting a good number of the total state testing, but we do not have good numbers for counties and certainly not for regional numbers," she said.
After Thursday's virtual town hall, at least two school boards voted to include classroom instruction as part of its 2020-21 school year reopening plan.
The Barren County Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to offer families the option of in-person learning when classes start Aug. 24, according to a report by WBKO.
Also on Thursday, The Crittenden County Board of Education approved, by unanimous vote, its Aug. 25 reopening plan, which includes a choice of in-person learning, according to the district.
"We respect the seriousness of this virus, but with relatively few active cases in our county, we feel the risk to our staff, students, and their families is low," Crittenden County Schools Superintendent Vince Clark said in a statement.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
