Wichita schools send 13,000 elementary students to home learning until at least January
CORRECTION: The decision to transition to fully remote affects approximately 13,000 in-person elementary school students. An inaccurate number was originally reported, based on comments from the superintendent.
Wichita schools will send home about 13,000 elementary students as the largest public school district in Kansas transitions to a fully remote learning model.
The Board of Education for Wichita Public Schools voted 6-0 in a special meeting Monday evening to move all classes online until further notice. Board member Mike Rodee was absent from the meeting.
Students will still attend in-person classes on Tuesday, but will start online learning on Wednesday. Remote learning will be fully implemented on Friday.
The decision, which will be re-evaluated Jan. 11, does not affect students at middle schools and high schools, who have been using remote learning since the start of the academic year. It also does not affect elementary students whose parents chose remote learning at the start of the semester.
Coronavirus infections continue to surge in Sedgwick County far above the red zone thresholds established in the USD 259 guide for reopening and closings schools during the pandemic.
“Our children need our community to step up and get these numbers down, whatever that may mean and however that needs to happen, we need to get our numbers down,” Superintendent Alicia Thompson said.
The two-week positive test rate cited by the district was 22.42% as of Nov. 21. The red zone starts at 15%. The two-week rate of new cases was 1,137.9 per 100,000 people. The red zone starts at 150 per 100,000.
Four elementary schools in Wichita — Levy, Mueller, White and Payne — have already moved to remote learning due to a high number of staff absences. Thompson said 22 buildings had more than 20% of their staff absent due to COVID-19.
District-wide, there were 1,137 staff in active quarantines as of Nov. 27, or about 16% of the workforce. There are not enough substitutes to fill the demand.
“These numbers are staggering,” board member Stan Reeser said. “Hopefully we can use this month to, with community cooperation, take our hard medicine now so that we can get back to as much normal as possible as soon as possible.”
There are some exceptions to remote learning, such as special education and classes with specialized labs.
After moving class fully remote, the Board of Education did not take action related to winter sports for middle and high schools. Winter sports will be allowed to compete, but without spectators, under the Kansas State High School Activities Association plan.
Local doctors, Sedgwick County’s health officer and the White House coronavirus task force have all called for stopping winter sports.
Gil Alvarez, the district’s assistant superintendent of secondary schools, expressed confidence in quarantines and mitigation measures to prevent major outbreaks of COVID-19 among sports teams.
Some surrounding school districts, including Derby and Maize, have already sent all students home for remote learning for the rest of the semester. In Valley Center, all students are remote learning through at least Dec. 11.
Also Monday, the board unanimously approved a surveillance coronavirus testing partnership with Wichita State University. The district and the university will use CARES Act funding to provide rapid, saliva-based, asymptomatic testing for staff. The White House coronavirus task force for more than a month has been recommending that Kansas schools implement weekly surveillance testing for K-12 teachers.
This story was originally published November 30, 2020 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Wichita schools send 13,000 elementary students to home learning until at least January."