LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Jefferson County Public Schools is preparing to start the 2020-21 school year with distance learning, but whether the district’s board will allow students to participate in fall sports is unclear as Louisville’s COVID-19 positivity rate remains high.
The Jefferson County Board of Education heard an update of the district’s plans for nontraditional instruction during a work session Tuesday.
JCPS is scheduled to begin the 2020-21 school year with at least six weeks of its “NTI 2.0” platform on Aug. 25, the day after fall sports teams are slated to begin practices after the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s board voted to delay the start of seasons July 28.
The school board will decide whether fall sports will continue as planned at its Aug. 18 meeting, which is two days before the next KHSAA meeting, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said.
Delaying the start of fall sports seasons would allow JCPS leaders to continue to look at COVID-19 data and evaluating health risks for students, Pollio said.
“We have to have the guiding principle of safety and health first,” he said.
Some board members expressed their reservations about holding fall sports if Louisville’s COVID-19 positivity rate stays high.
Data maintained by the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness show that the local testing positivity rate is 7.4% based on a seven-day rolling average and hit a low of about 6% in mid-July. Kentucky’s COVID-19 positivity rate was 5.24% on Tuesday.
Chris Kolb, vice chairman of the school board, who represents District 2, said the local positivity rate was “close to alarmingly high.”
While he’s looking “for every reason” to move forward with fall sports at JCPS, Kolb said current testing data aren’t promising.
“The way things are trending now I’m not inclined to be in favor of starting fall sports,” he said.
Board member James Craig, who represents District 3, said he shared Kolb’s concerns. If the district could ensure students’ safety during athletics, Craig said he would offer “any incentive” as a board member to make that happen.
Some have been lobbying board members “hard” to support pressing forward with fall sports during the pandemic, he said.
“The tone of the lobbying is much different than the communications we were receiving in June and July,” Craig said. “Whereas parents, students and teachers were being concerned about being forced into a dangerous situation in June and July, the tone of the conversation today is a concern about losing an opportunity to do something they affirmatively want to do in the fall.”
“The acceptable level of deaths, the acceptable levels of infections should be zero for the board,” he said. “We should be striving towards absolute health for everyone.”
Board member Linda Duncan, who represents District 5, said cross country could be the only fall sport with a low COVID-19 risk.
“I also know nothing is entirely failsafe on this, and I get very, very nervous about trying to pursue this,” she said.
While the fall sports season remains unresolved as JCPS nears its Aug. 25 starting date for the 2020-21 school year, other aspects of the district’s reopening plan have been solidified.
Kentucky’s largest school district was the first to move toward distance learning after the board voted unanimously on the 2020-21 reopening plan on July 21. A growing number of school systems, including Fayette County Public Schools, have followed suit.
The district’s “NTI 2.0” platform will focus on project-based lessons while students are learning from home.
Teachers and staff will begin two weeks of professional development and planning next week, and those who work at the district’s accelerated improvement schools will get an extra five days of training to prepare for the 2020-21 school year starting Monday.
“We really have been intentional about focusing on a small number of well-researched practices to support our students this time around,” Chief Academic Officer Carmen Coleman said. “We’re trying to be much simpler.”
Getting computing devices to students will be key as the district resumes distance learning, with regular interactions between teachers and students expected during “NTI 2.0.” Daily attendance will be taken during nontraditional instruction, and students will take virtual Measures of Academic Progress tests to get a handle on where they are in reading and math, Pollio said.
Pollio will announce Wednesday how JCPS families can request Chromebooks and data hotspots for the upcoming school year.
The district has bought an additional 30,000 Chromebooks after distributing more than 20,000 in the spring as JCPS and school districts throughout Kentucky transitioned to nontraditional instruction.
Ten thousand T-Mobile hotspots with a year of unlimited data will also be available for the upcoming school year.
JCPS is also exploring the opening learning hubs during nontraditional instruction, either on its own or through partnerships with community stakeholders such as the YMCA, Pollio said. The board will hear an update on that initiative at its Aug. 18 meeting, he said.
Those learning hubs would host small numbers of students and provide them access to computers, tutoring, meals and needed services, Pollio said.
“We want to do everything we possibly can to provide support for families and learning opportunities for families in a very targeted way,” he said.
The district is also “making a major push” to locate and contact all of its nearly 100,000 students ahead of the 2020-21 school year, said Renee Murphy, the district’s communications director. JCPS lost touch with 523 students during its eight-week offering of nontraditional instruction in the spring.
JCPS staff will also reach out to families enrolled in the district ahead of the school year during the upcoming two weeks of professional development, Pollio said.
“We’re working hard to reach every one of those kids before the first day of school,” he said.
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