Officials with Owensboro Public Schools on Thursday discussed various aspects of the upcoming return to in-person classes — including new self-reporting requirements, metrics for modes of instruction and already looking ahead to next semester.
OPS is set to return to an A/B in-person schedule beginning Oct. 12.
“It’s been our goal since the beginning to get to this point and we couldn’t be more excited,” Superintendent Matthew Constant said during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
When they do return, they’ll be joining public and private schools across Kentucky in self-reporting COVID-19 data to state officials.
Starting Monday, schools must report daily the number of new coronavirus cases in students and teachers, as well as the number of new students and teachers quarantined.
“The state wants parents and the community armed with up-to-the minute information on what’s been reported to us as we know it,” Constant said.
The schools will rely on parents to communicate any positive tests in children, though the cases will not be reported until they have been confirmed with the Green River District Health Department.
Because of varying lengths of quarantine, the numbers may not accurately reflect the number of persons currently in quarantine.
Jared Revlett, OPS public information officer, said the community should similarly take caution when looking at the number of positive cases. Since that number will continue to grow, it will be important to also note the number of recoveries.
“The important number to look at is the active cases because there are also recoveries that are happening frequently,” he said.
The self-reported data — for which a link will be available on the OPS website — is only one of the latest pieces of guidance to help monitor how safe it is to attend school in person or virtually.
The “COVID-19 Mode of Instruction Metrics for K-12 Education” is a color-coded system that recommends specific mitigation measures based on four levels of disease transmission.
“As you know, superintendents have been asking for more local control of our situation rather than a blanket governor recommendation,” Constant said. “This is the legend that is recommended for what kind of learning should happen based on local health data.”
The four levels are:
- Green: Fewer than one case per 100,000 county residents, allows in-person or remote learning and sports.
- Yellow: 1-10 cases per 100,000 people, allows in-person or remote learning and sports.
- Orange: 10-25 cases per 100,000, recommends considering remote learning only and allows sports.
- Red: More than 25 cases per 100,000, means schools should move all remote learning and sports should be suspended.
However, Constant noted the system is only a recommendation and that it would be up to the district to decide how to move forward with instruction.
For example, Constant said Daviess County would currently fall into the orange level, but OPS is still moving forward with in-person instruction on Oct. 12.
They could also resume in-person classes even if the county moves to the red level — and there are examples within Kentucky of other districts doing so.
Warren County was in the red level when the school year began — they have since transitioned down to yellow — but they have been attending in-person classes from the start. District officials there said the number of cases at Western Kentucky University skewed the numbers for the county.
“Warren County is still going,” Constant said. “When they looked at the cases and where they appeared, that was a factor for them. Most of their cases are from WKU.”
Revlett added of Warren County, “They have the data on their website to support the fact they only have a very small handful of cases for their school district and they are not the reason the county is so high.”
Revlett also pointed out that they believe OPS would not have to report cases for students in the Virtual Academy as long as the child has not been in the school building.
Once they do return, Constant said the district will assess their situation after two weeks as they determine how to keep moving forward, including already preparing to make spring semester plans.
He said they’ll continue monitoring and adjusting every two to four weeks to allow flexibility as they navigate the school year.
“I don’t anticipate that we will have a hard and fast ‘Spring 2021 is going to look like this from day one.’ I do think it’s important for us to announce what the plan will be to start,” Constant said. “In my mind, I have these two- to four-week valuation periods where we can look back and look at the health and safety data to look forward to what’s coming.”
