‘It kinda itches.’ Keeping Kansas kids safe from COVID-19 at school may prove tough

At a summer camp for elementary students in the Wichita suburb of Goddard, 6-year-old Emma Rueger has grown used to wearing the unicorn mask her grandmother made for her.

“I like it. I’m used to it,” Emma said. “... I love unicorns so much.”

As the school year approaches, Goddard schools have been testing out possible COVID-19 precautions at a camp for at-risk students.

Every student older than five, and all staff, must wear masks inside. High-touch surfaces are cleaned once an hour. Students wash their hands when they go into a different room. Parents are asked to take their child’s temperature each day before class.

It can be frustrating.

“It kinda itches my face right here,” 7-year-old Miles Martin said, pointing to where the strap meets the mask. He added that he most looks forward to breathing breaks where he social distances from others.

The Goddard experiment comes as districts across the state are scrambling to make crucial decisions about reopening that will determine what student life looks like. Educational leaders are under intense pressure to reopen schools in some form, even as new cases of the coronavirus soar in Kansas.

On Wednesday, Gov. Laura Kelly announced she will issue an executive order delaying the start of school until after Labor Day. She said the extra time will give districts more time to develop policies and plans to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. The state board of education must approve the decision.

The Kansas State Department of Education this week released safety guidance with numerous recommendations for educators on everything from masks to temperature checks. If followed, the guidance promises to produce a very different school day than what teachers and students experienced in the past. Kelly said she also plans to mandate many of the suggestions.

But implementing the recommendations may prove challenging. Rules grounded in public health will collide with the unruliness of rambunctious children and teenage rebellion. Some goals -- such as hourly hand-washing for every student -- could end up more aspirational than practical.

“Will you be able to wash your hands every hour? Well, maybe not, but if that’s your goal and you do it every other hour, you’re a lot better off than if you don’t do it at all,” Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said.

The state guidance, which is voluntary for districts, offers a range of recommendations depending on the severity of the spread of COVID-19 in the area. But in general, the recommendations center on social distancing as much as possible, regular hand-washing and disinfecting surfaces, and suggestions that schools consider placing students in groups to minimize the spread of an outbreak.

Masks are recommended for middle and high school students, but not for pre-K and elementary students. That conflicts with Gov. Laura Kelly’s statewide mask order, which requires masks for most people over the age of five.

In counties that either adopted the order or put in place a similar mandate, young students may still have to wear masks.

“I’m kind of chuckling because we had a phone call with all the Sedgwick County superintendents and that is a hot topic of contention,” said Stephanie Kuhlmann, a Wichita pediatrician who helped develop the recommendations.

Kuhlmann said there isn’t great evidence that children under 10 are big spreaders of the virus and often have very mild symptoms or no symptoms if they get it.

Craig Neuenswander, deputy education commissioner, said the physicians involved in crafting the state guidance felt a mask requirement for young children would “be more harm than good.”

Still, Audrey Kirkman, the elementary site coordinator for the roughly 75-student camp at Goddard, said the children have been adaptable to the changes.

“We haven’t had any issues,” she said. “It has worked really well.”

Teachers anxious, fearful

Several Kansas teachers said they are coping with mountinganxiety as the school year approaches.

“The strain on educators right now is not knowing that we can go to school, come home to our families and keep everyone healthy. That is what’s keeping teachers up at night right now,” said Amy Hillman, an eighth grade teacher at Santa Fe Trail Middle School in Olathe.

Many teachers said they have spent the summer taking online courses, learning how to use new technology and researching the virus. They know once they return to school buildings, some will have only a few days to drastically transform their classrooms and teaching methods.

And some worry they will be forced to act as a medical professional in their classrooms, responsible for keeping dozens of students and staff healthy, without being thoroughly trained to do so.

“Nobody wants to be in school more than I do. But at the same time, there’s a lot of stress and anxiety for teachers who feel like they are now in the position of not only teaching your kid a subject, but now I’m going to be potentially in charge of someone’s health,” said Tony Budetti, an AP teacher at Shawnee Mission South High School.

“We have a bunch of kids with underlying health conditions, or who go home to people with health conditions,” he said. “I’m not a doctor; I teach economics.”

Budetti’s largest classes typically have more than 30 students. Last year, he had 33 high schoolers in a class with 32 desks. One student, he said, “ended up sitting on the couch.”

So it’s difficult for him to imagine a classroom where social distancing is feasible.

Officials involved in crafting the statewide reopening guidance acknowledge perfect social distancing probably isn’t achievable if all students are attending in-person classes. But they also expect some percentage of students and their parents to opt for remote instruction or a blend of time in the classroom and online.

“Most school districts cannot operate with strict social distancing with 100 percent capacity. Part of that is that’s just not the way our buildings were built,” said Frank Harwood, superintendent of the De Soto district, who worked on the guidance.

Schools developing plans

While the reopening guidance was formally released on Wednesday, many districts are already developing their own rules. Still, educators warn it will take time for students, teachers and staff to be trained after districts formally adopt plans.

“I just want to warn the public this isn’t going to happen overnight,” Jim McNiece, a member of the state board of education, said.

Wichita schools, the state’s largest district, held a workshop with local board members this week on reopening guidance. Kansas City, Kansas, schools are also developing their plan. KCK superintendent Charles Foust declined to comment until the district approves one.

“I believe that it’s highly improbable that any district is waiting until tomorrow to start,” Valley Center schools superintendent Cory Gibson said.

Even as teachers, administrators and the public try to figure out how to safely reopen schools, children at the Goddard summer camp were already making peace with what will almost certainly be a school year unlike any other.

“I think that it’s fine because I don’t want to get anyone sick and I want to keep everyone healthy,” said 7-year-old Izabella Garrison. “I wouldn’t mind (wearing a mask all school year) but at the same time I wouldn’t like it.

“You can’t really breathe in them but it still helps to keep everyone safe,” she said. “Because if everyone gets sick then we won’t have anyone in the world.”

The Star’s Mará Rose Williams contributed reporting

This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 4:35 PM.