Wichita school board delays start of school year, bucking state Board of Education
A day after the state Board of Education declined to delay the start of the school year, the Wichita school board decided to go with Gov. Laura Kelly’s recommendation to start school after Labor Day.
The board also voted to offer two online alternatives for families who aren’t comfortable returning their children to school in the shadow of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is not a normal year,” said USD 259 board Chair Sheril Logan.
She said teachers, students and parents will need extra time to adjust to safety protocols to prevent the spread of coronavirus and to get comfortable with new options for online learning.
The board unanimously voted to start the school year on Sept. 8 or 9. That now goes to the district’s Calendar Committee to finalize the schedule for the school year.
The final calendar is expected to be approved at next week’s board meeting.
Whether the district will be able to open its buildings for on-site instruction is still undecided, but all K-12 students will be provided with computer devices in case the school year has to begin with virtual instruction.
The decision on whether to open the buildings or start the year online will be made Aug. 20 and will be based on coronavirus conditions in Wichita on that day, said Assistant Superintendent Tiffinie Irving.
Board members complained that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ll still, by law, have to provide students with the same 1,116 instructional contact hours that they would in an ordinary year.
“The claim is that we have local control, but then we have all of these (state) requirements that have not been waived, have not been waived at all,” said board member Ben Blankley. “So it really puts us local elected leaders — we’re all volunteers — in an incredibly tough situation.”
The governor announced last week an order to delay the start of school until after the Labor Day weekend because of rising infection rates and hospitalizations due to COVID.
But the state Legislature passed a law in a special session last month requiring Kelly to get state Board of Education approval to order school closures due to the pandemic.
On Wednesday, the state board deadlocked 5-5 over whether to approve Kelly’s order, which meant it couldn’t take effect.
That leaves all decisions on school scheduling in the hands of local school boards.
Blankley said if the decision had to be made today, school in USD 259 would probably start the year online only.
“The state Legislature leadership basically didn’t do the right thing,” Blankley said. “They claimed ‘local control’ but then they didn’t do the bare minimum for public health that we know is needed to get this under control so that we can get kids back into physical school.
“The state board split. I can’t say how disappointed I am because an infectious disease doesn’t respect county boundaries and all the people that are going to get severely sick are going to come here for treatment. It’s just how it is.”
Board member Ernestine Krehbiel made an plea for Wichitans to wear protective facemasks in public so in-person schooling can begin again.
“I think giving us the extra time till the day after Labor Day gives this city a chance for them to do the right thing, to mask up, to know that if it (the coronavirus rate) is as high as it is now, we can’t go back to school,” she said. “We want to urge all families to nag your neighbors, tell your relatives wear the masks so that we can start school.”
The Wichita board voted to make available three options for instruction in the coming semester, one on-site and two online.
Online enrollment is now open on the district’s website, www.usd259.org, and in-person enrollment will be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. For information on live enrollment times, call 316-973-4285.
Parents can sign up their children in any of the three educational models being offered this year:
On-site education
The on-site option will be more or less the same as the traditional school model, but with extra precautions in place to try to protect students and staff from infection by the coronavirus.
The differences between this and a normal school year include:
▪ Masks and social distancing — Teachers and students will be required to wear masks at all times when instruction is going on and when in common areas. Rules will be established to avoid crowding in hallways and other common areas.
▪ Nutrition — School lunches will be “quick-serve” meals. Instead of gathering in the cafeteria or common area of a campus, students will be spread out to locations around the school to eat. Meal options will be more limited than usual.
▪ Sanitizer — The school district has worked with a local supplier and has obtained a sufficient supply of hand sanitizer to meet the needs of all schools.
▪ Temperature checks — All students and staff will undergo temperature checks using no-touch thermometers. The district has more than 700 scanning thermometers in hand and has ordered about 1,000 more that are expected to arrive before the beginning of the school year.
▪ Transportation — All bus monitors and riders will be required to wear masks. Buses will be cleaned and sanitized more frequently than usual.
▪ Field trips — No live field trips will be conducted. Teachers will be encouraged to seek opportunities for virtual field trips for their students.
▪ Latchkey and after-school programs — The programs will be offered, but students and staff will have to abide by the same health precautions as during the school day.
▪ Technology — Students will be issued and trained in how to use age-appropriate online devices, so classes could be moved to an online-delivery model in case COVID-19 flares and schools have to be closed sometime during the year.
My School Remote
This model more-or-less duplicates the onsite school experience, but all instruction is delivered to students at home through teleconferencing. Key features include:
▪ Attendance — The school day will be conducted with regular scheduled classes paralleling the normal school day; attendance will be taken on a daily basis.
▪ Instruction — Will be face-to-face online with a two-way connection between teachers and students, so students will be able to ask or answer questions as they would if they were in an ordinary classroom setting.
▪ Curriculum — The students will be taught essentially the same curriculum as they would in on-site school, although there might be some elective classes offered at the on-site school that won’t be available in the remote option.
▪ Technology — Students will use district-provided age-appropriate devices for accessing their classes. Instruction will be provided through a single platform using Microsoft Teams.
▪ Grading — Grades will be issued as usual. Students will be required to keep a daily learning log tracking their progress that will have to be signed off by their parent or guardian.
▪ Teachers — Students will officially be enrolled in their neighborhood or magnet school and the instruction will be provided by a teacher or team of teachers from that school.
▪ Transitions — Students will be enrolled in My School Remote for the school year, but would be allowed to transition back to on-site school at the semester break if requested by their parents.
Education Imagine Academy
This is a complete virtual school experience giving K-12 students and their parents more flexibility in the learning environment. Key features include:
▪ Instruction — Students will work at their own pace using online instructional materials. Teachers are available for one-on-one instruction or help when needed.
▪ Technology — Students will be provided with age-appropriate devices by the district to access their materials.
▪ Scheduling — Students do not have a fixed school day and learn at their own pace, with flexible timeframes for completing coursework. Students also have the option to work outside regular school hours.
▪ Assessment — Students are assessed on the same standards and competencies and take the same district and state assessment tests that they would if they were in a traditional classroom.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 3:54 PM.
