The Owensboro Board of Education met Thursday to talk about the upcoming 2020-21 calendar, new funding and school resource officers.
“It’s been an unbelievable time,” said Owensboro Public Schools Interim Superintendent Matthew Constant.
He said a newly created Coronavirus Task Force will monitor the virus as well as state recommendations throughout the summer and craft a plan for the upcoming school year.
Constant said he has heard a lot of scenarios about the next academic year, including a potential July start date.
“I think the mentality of a June start date would be to get in front of kids and do any type of face-to-face we could do just in case a resurgence happens and we have to move to NTI again,” he said. “Just trying to get that face-to-face time as soon as we can.”
At this point in time, Constant said they are not considering a July start date.
“That could change,” he said. “But right now we are not talking about anything in July.”
The first day of school this fall is currently scheduled for Aug. 12.
One of the reasons Constant is not thinking about an earlier start date is because the guidance being given is to return around July 20 or 25 — and the time between then and Aug. 12 is minimal.
“There is just not that much time, but I think it’s also a mentality thing — going to school in July is something most people have not thought about,” he said. “We will have more calendar options in our back pocket should we need them.”
Along with the school calendar, the board talked about two types of funds coming to OPS from the CARES Act — the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER), both of which are dedicated to COVID-19 related expenses.
Constant said this money will be allotted to schools in the same manner that Title 1 allocations are given. The district will still get the Title 1 allocation and will additionally get two more “pots of funds.”
“It will be a sizable amount of funds for our school district,” Constant said.
Constant said the board wants to focus on three major areas for the incoming funds — buying sanitizing agents and personal protective equipment for the new school year, buying Chromebooks for elementary students, and holding on to the funds for savings.
The plan would be to provide students in grades 3-12 with Chromebooks. For the younger students, access will look different on a day-to-day basis and the devices will stay at schools instead of the students taking them home every night.
“We will not issue them to the home unless we are on NTI or unless they have a project that needs a device at home for the night,” Constant said. “They will be in the school at all times.”
The uncertainty of the state budget is one of the reasons Constant is wanting to save some of the extra funds the school district receives.
Constant also talked about the decision to continue working with Owensboro Police Department school resource officers and the possibility of moving to special law enforcement officers in the future.
“OPD has worked well with us throughout this time,” he said. “Chief (Art) Ealum has been very open and communicating with us. We’ve been talking for a while about a middle school (resource) person.”
Constant said the struggle has been OPD does not have enough officers to hire one out to the school system.
“It’s been really difficult to dedicate an officer for our middle school,” he said. “We have kept those conversations up. We really value our strong relationship with OPD. There isn’t a price tag I can put on what OPD has done for us and our schools.”
