Wichita schools make Thanksgiving break longer because of COVID effects on staffing
Wichita schools will close for the entire week of Thanksgiving due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on staffing.
“This disease is out of control in our community, and we are feeling the impact of what is happening in our community inside of our schools with the COVID illnesses alongside the quarantine,” Superintendent Alicia Thompson said. “It has been a rough couple of weeks.”
The USD 259 Board of Education voted unanimously at a special meeting Monday afternoon to extend the fall break for the full week of Thanksgiving, Nov. 23-27. The vote was 6-0, with Ron Rosales absent.
“Your willingness today — the Board of Education members — to extend the fall break will give our system the much-needed opportunity to regain some functional capacity in our district,” Thompson said. “By giving our employees and our families the opportunity to focus on health and wellness, emotionally and physically. So please, please, please, those of you out there, please take this opportunity to follow public health and safety guidelines and make the difficult decision to stay home and not to travel and not to attend those large gatherings, I plead with you to do that.”
The special meeting was called because Wichita Public Schools are having trouble finding enough substitute teachers as full-time staff test positive for COVID-19 or are quarantined due to possible exposure. That has placed “significant strain on functional capacity in the school district,” according to the meeting agenda.
The agenda also noted that “positive COVID cases have risen dramatically in Sedgwick County” this month and “local hospitals are at capacity.”
COVID cases
The district on Monday updated its reports on COVID-19 cases among students and staff, as well as staff quarantines.
There were 250 new cases reported between Nov. 6 and Nov. 15. That includes 160 employees, 35 in-person students and 55 remote students, which could include athletes who participate in sports. The report does not indicate whether the students and staff were infected while at school or out in the community.
The 340 new staff quarantines between Nov. 6 and Nov. 12 raised the total number of staff in active quarantines to 805 out of an estimated on-site employee population of 7,308. About 11% of USD 259 staff are under quarantine.
Winter sports, clusters
Board member Stan Reeser said the future of winter sports will be discussed at the next school board meeting on Nov. 30. Monday was the first day of practice for winter sports under the Kansas State High School Activities Association, opening the possibility that student-athletes could lose their seasons weeks after they started.
Doctors told Wichita’s school board last week that winter sports, including basketball and wrestling, are risky for both participants and spectators.
“Contact sports played indoors will be at very high risk for COVID-19 transmission this winter, especially as our community numbers increase,” pediatrician Paul Teran said. “Spectators at those indoor sports will be at a very high risk for COVID-19 transmission.”
While no coronavirus clusters have been publicly reported among Wichita athletes, fall athletic programs in suburban towns have been affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 cases on the teams that spread to the schools.
“I think it was by the grace of God that we didn’t have an outbreak,” pediatrician Rebecca Reddy said of no reported clusters in Wichita fall sports. “... I think it’s dangerous to have sports at this time.”
While the Sedgwick County Health Department has reported 10 school-related clusters, it has only named one of them. A second has been named by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The other eight clusters, which were all reported this month on the local health department’s dashboard, have not been publicly identified.
“KDHE has been posting and notifying the public of school clusters in its Wednesday website update,” Sedgwick County spokesperson Kate Flavin said in an email. “I am not sure why their information is not consistent with what is shared on the Sedgwick County dashboard. We will look into this. Please note that the school and school-related clusters are contained and families should be notified by the schools if there is COVID-19.”
Elementary schools, teachers
The school board decided last week to keep middle school and high school classes entirely online for the rest of the semester, reversing earlier decisions that would have allowed most secondary students to attend hybrid in-person classes as pandemic indicators worsened.
The United Teachers of Wichita union president on Monday advocated for sending elementary students home for remote classes.
“Our community and school COVID crisis has worsened by the day,” Kimberly Howard said. “The situation is dire and calls for full (remote) for the elementary schools, and we strongly encourage you to make that decision for the rest of the semester.”
Howard also spoke to the school board on transparency and communication.
“Teachers have reported to buildings to do work they could have done from home, confronted large class sizes for days on end and juggled students while trying to cover for their colleagues’ students,” she said. “While teachers have worked in this environment, their perception is that you (the school board) all meet in a nice, big, socially-distanced room with only invited guests allowed. ... The only public input allowed is emails that are not read aloud.”
Monday’s meeting had no emailed public comment. Howard urged the board to allow in-person public comment as long as school buildings are kept open. The public “needs to know you are listening,” she said.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 3:21 PM.