Wichita school district to lock all 50 playgrounds during coronavirus pandemic

Children staying home all day after schools were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic will no longer be able to play at any Wichita Public Schools playground.

Superintendent Alicia Thompson said during a Tuesday news conference that all 50 school playgrounds will be locked this week “based on guidance from the Sedgwick County Health Department.”

“Believe me, I recognize the angst and unhappiness this will create with our communities,” Thompson said. “But the reality is that we cannot assure that our playgrounds won’t become a harbor for community spread of the coronavirus.”

The playgrounds will be locked because “we were not following the (social) distancing,” Thompson said, “and we think that that’s critically important if we want our community to be safe. And we do not want to be part of creating the spread of the coronavirus.”

Though USD 259 has fencing around district playgrounds, some schools had left them open. Those that have been open will be closed. The district will not be monitoring the playgrounds.

The move comes as 58 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sedgwick County, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data. Nine of the 428 people diagnosed with the disease in Kansas have died, including one in the Wichita area. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly earlier this month became the first governor to close schools for the rest of the school year.

Thompson also said continuous learning packets that have been distributed along with free school lunches will no longer be available for pickup, starting next week. The packets will be available online and by mail for preschool through eighth grade students. High school students can only get their education packets online.

She said schools staff did not know how many parents and students would pick up packets versus getting them online. When education resumed on Monday, there was “significant interest” in picking up paper packets.

“We had long lines and ran out of packets in several locations,” Thompson said. “We learned that many parents aren’t able to get to the pickup locations during the day or to access packets online. And we know that parents in our community care a lot about education of their children.”

Because of the issues, the district has expanded pickup hours for the rest of this week. But starting Monday, no packets will be distributed in person “due to concerns about social distancing,” said Deputy Superintendent Tiffinie Irving.

“We are working this week to get technology into the hands of some of our high school students to assure that they can achieve their academic and graduation goals,” Irving said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Wichita school district to lock all 50 playgrounds during coronavirus pandemic."