Daviess County Public Schools could soon allow younger-aged students to return to in-person classes after adding an additional color to the COVID-19 stoplight system.
The new orange level light was approved unanimously by the board of education Thursday and once the Green River District Health Department reports at least two consecutive weeks of decreasing COVID-19 cases in Daviess County, students from preschool to 8th grade can go back to the A/B model for in-person classes, while high school students will continue distance learning.
On July 27, the board approved a stoplight system that included three colors: green, yellow and red. Currently, all DCPS students are learning on red light status, barring all in-person learning.
The orange light level, however, comes from the Harvard Global Health Institute COVID-19 Risk Model, and by working closely with the health department, Superintendent Matt Robbins said he believed the orange light level could be a positive thing for students and staff.
“We know that in-person learning is what’s best for our kids,” he said. “The orange level we may utilize.”
With the orange light level, students from preschool to 8th grade would be able to attend in-person classes through the A/B system, where 50% of students attend school on Monday and Tuesday, while the other half come in-person on Thursday and Friday. All students would participate in digital learning on Wednesdays.
All high school students would continue to attend classes online, Robbins said. However, DCPS and the GRDHD will allow small groups to attend in-person classes, as long as the number of students doesn’t exceed 10% of the school’s in-person population. Those students will largely be English Learner (EL) and those who have struggled the most with online learning.
“When we look at the highest-learning capable students, it’s more challenging for K-5 students to access digital learning,” he said. “Our positive cases and quarantine numbers are heavily tilted toward the high school level.”
Currently, DCPS has one student and four staff members who’ve tested positive for COVID-19. However, the number of quarantined students and staff is far higher, with 27 students under a 14-day quarantine and 26 staff members.
According to the most recent statistics from GRDHD, Daviess County saw a three-week peak of COVID cases in July, followed by a slight decrease in cases, which was then followed by a recent two-week increase.
“We must see two consecutive weeks of improved status before we will move down the continuum of strategies,” Robbins said. “Green River District Health Department reviews this data. Sometimes we see a lag in calculations [from the state], so we’ll rely heavily on GRDHD for statistics related to the stoplight model.”
Robbins said the principals at both Apollo and Daviess County supported implementing the orange light level, and that it matched the regulations set in place by GRDHD, the Kentucky Department of Health and Harvard COVID-19 model.
“We will assist [GRDHD] to facilitate contact tracing, but the decision to quarantine is not ours and I don’t think it should be ours,” Robbins added.
