COVID cancels football games at another Kansas school, but classes continue as normal
The coronavirus pandemic has caused another Kansas high school to cancel football games while classes continue as normal, despite indicators suggesting a move to a more restrictive learning model.
The football cancellations come from Chanute High School, though administrators did not provide a reason in their public statements on Facebook and the district’s website. The coronavirus connection was identified by the would-be opponent: Jefferson West High School in Meriden.
“Due to positive cases of COVID-19 and the quarantine of Chanute FB players, Friday night’s Varsity FB game @ Chanute has been cancelled,” the Jefferson West school announced on Twitter.
Jefferson West scheduled a new game with Sedgwick High School.
Statements from Chanute administrators on Facebook and the district website on Thursday announced that games were canceled this week and next week, though the fall homecoming ceremony will still take place Friday. They made no mention of COVID-19 cases and quarantines.
Earlier on Thursday, Chanute USD 413 Superintendent Kellen Adams and the Neosho County Health Department announced that a high school student had tested positive for COVID-19. While the statement mentioned contact tracing, it made no reference to a quarantine of the football team.
Chanute was not the first school district in southeast Kansas to cancel football games this week due to the pandemic. High school football teams in Fort Scott and Independence also must halt activities for two weeks after a player at last week’s game tested positive. The teams, which had been scheduled to play again this week, are now in quarantine.
Chanute school administrators plan to continue in the least-restrictive zone of the state’s reopening guide, despite three of five pandemic indicators suggesting that local conditions warrant a change.
A USD 413 gating criteria document shows the district as remaining in the green zone of the Kansas State Department of Education’s gating criteria. Only two indicators — student absenteeism and hospital capacity — are in the green zone.
The KSDE’s reopening guide uses a color-coded matrix with five data indicators for green, yellow, orange and red zones. Green is the least restrictive with the red zone the most restrictive, calling for online only classes for all grade levels and no extracurricular activities.
It is unclear why the district’s gating criteria document shows the schools remaining in the green zone next week. The report shows that Neosho County’s trend in new cases is in the yellow zone, the positive test rate is in the orange zone and the rate of new cases compared to population is in the red zone.
“There is no magical formula, there is no algorithm that is driving this,” a district video explains of the decision-making process. “Rather, this is humans making decisions using the best information that we have available.”
The district calendar shows classes started Aug. 24. Earlier that month, several of the district’s administrators tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a leadership retreat in Branson, Missouri.
In northwest Kansas, one school district has reversed course after previously canceling all upcoming sporting events due to coronavirus exposure.
Superintendent Eric Stoddard of Rawlins County public schools in Atwood announced Wednesday morning that all students would be moving to fully remote learning and all activities and practices would be canceled until Sept. 30. The decision was made because of multiple positive tests within the small school district.
That night, the local USD 105 board of education overturned the decision. The vote allowed junior-senior high school classes and activities to resume starting Thursday. The school board plans to meet again Friday evening to determine the fate of elementary school classes.
The Wallace County school district in Sharon Springs, which is scheduled to play Rawlins County on Friday, said the game is still on.