LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Leaders of various Kentucky education groups expressed their concerns about how schools will safely resume in-person instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic during a legislative hearing Tuesday.
School districts throughout the state are drafting their reopening plans for the 2020-21 school year based on guidance from the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Department for Public Health, which includes expectations for schools to direct students to wear masks starting in the first grade if they can't maintain social distancing, conduct health screenings on students before they enter buildings and regularly sanitize surfaces.
School districts are also exploring the possibility of offering in-person and remote learning opportunities at the start of the 2020-21 year for families who worry about sending their children back to school during a global pandemic.
But those additional responsibilities have some concerned that school staff will be overtaxed during the school year and further contribute to personnel shortages experienced in many districts.
"Educators are going to be asked to continue their regular routine but also take on distance learning, add additional time to their days to monitor students before and after school because of extended schedules, give up valuable planning time to cover classes due to the lack of subs, do temperature checks, maintain logs, help in contact-tracing, sanitize desks between classes and in some cases sanitize their rooms after school all of that with no additional compensation or no additional assurance of protection," Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association, told lawmakers on the Interim Joint Committee on Education.
"We can no longer overburden our teachers and education support staff with more and more responsibilities."
Representatives of the Kentucky School Boards Association and Kentucky Association of School Superintendents expressed similar concerns as districts prepare to resume in-person classes in unprecedented public health circumstances.
Eric Kennedy, KSBA's governmental relations director, said school district leaders worry about how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact their employees. Some may request to work from home while others may simply retire or resign, he said.
"One of the biggest issues is will we have the staff that we need to open the school year," Kennedy said, who also highlighted concerns in areas such as funding and providing multiple modes of instruction.
One of the greatest financial and logistical challenges facing school districts at the start of the 2020-21 school year will be checking every student's temperature upon entry, said Jim Flynn, executive director of KASS.
"All of the scientific evidence leads us to understand that many young people don't present symptoms, including temperatures," Flynn said. "When we think about the logistical challenges of taking everyone's temperature prior to them entering the building, superintendents are really weighing the benefit of that."
Kevin Brown, the state's interim education commissioner, said the Kentucky Department of Education was able to buy 12,500 digital thermometers for school districts. He estimated that would equal about one thermometer for every 50 students.
Checking temperatures isn't "foolproof," but it's "the best indicator of potential exposure to COVID," Brown said.
"We're hearing that is absolutely a must-have in order for us to have safe entry to schools," he said. "The good news is we have the equipment."
Another piece of equipment included in the state's reopening guidance – masks for students – has become a divisive subject throughout the U.S.
Brown said "mask police" won't be monitoring schools for compliance, but students will be expected to wear them if social distancing can't be followed.        Â
"We believe that teachers are going to be creative," he said. "They're going to use their classroom management skills. We have great building leaders out there. A lot of it, though, is going to have to happen in our communities."
KEA, KSBA and KASS also voiced their support for waiving standardized testing for the 2020-21 school year through a federal waiver, which other states have begun to do in recent weeks.
"During this pivotal time, it's more about the accountability and not as much about the assessment," Flynn said. "… We need to really figure out kind of where we are, where we need to go next as opposed to the high-stakes accountability side of the equation."
Lawmakers also heard an update Tuesday on the resumption of high school athletics.
Julian Tackett, commissioner of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, said the KHSAA board will meet Friday to discuss reopening guidelines for fall sports.
"We're still planning for fall sports," he said. "What that looks like could change just like the data related to the virus changes. We are more optimistic now than perhaps a few weeks ago."
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