Updates: Students returning to classrooms as Covid cases fall, with new CDC guidance

A Grandview School District elementary student opened his first day of in-person school with the Pledge of Allegiance in October. Other school districts also hope to bring more students in-person. Facebook photo with permission from the Grandview School District.

Changing plans

Here are the latest updates on reopening plans for our partner schools

Kansas City Public Schools

March 15 — K-3 return in a hybrid model.

March 22 — Grades 4-6 and 7 and 9 return in a hybrid model.

April 5 — Grades 8 and 10-12 return in a hybrid model.

Hickman Mills School District

March 15 — Pre-K–2nd grade return in person. All return dates dependent on successful vaccination program.

March 22 — Grades 3–8 return in person in a hybrid model

April 5 — High school grades return in person in a hybrid model

Center School District

Feb. 17 — Pre-K–5th grade return in person.

March 22 — Grades 6–12 return in-person on a hybrid model.

Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy

March 15 — Classes will return to in-person in a hybrid model.

North Kansas City School District

Currently grades pre-K–5 are in person, and 6–12 are in person in a hybrid model. Changes to be determined.

Grandview School District

Currently grades pre-K–2 are in person, and grades 3–8 are in person in a hybrid model. Plans to add high school in person to be determined.

Fort Osage School District

Currently grades pre-K–8 are in person. Grades 9–12 are in person in a hybrid model.

Genesis School

Currently grades pre-K–4 are in person. Grades 5–8 are in person in a hybrid model.

It’s been a long road. That’s for sure.

But continued declines in Covid-19 cases plus more aggressive advice from the Centers for Disease Control are opening the doors for Kansas City Public Schools, Hickman Mills and Center to bring students back into in-person classrooms in the weeks ahead.

And districts that already had students in classrooms in varying amounts are hoping to bring in more — including North Kansas City, Grandview and Fort Osage.

School districts are working with hospital networks to try to arrange Covid-19 vaccinations for teachers and staff that would help ease some of the anxiety of re-entry.

But as more guidance has come from the Centers for Disease Control, districts are responding to research that shows schools can open with reasonable safety without widespread vaccinations, provided that safety precautions, including masks, social distancing and disinfecting, are in place.

The Center School District prepared to bring pre-K through fifth grades into classrooms four days a week beginning February 17 — but had to delay because of weather. The administration is proposing that middle school and high school groups will return March 22 in a hybrid model with some days in school and some online.

Kansas City Public Schools and the Hickman Mills School District are planning to bring students back into buildings beginning March 15.

KCPS is planning to phase in re-entry to classrooms, and eventually will have all grades in a hybrid model. K-3 will begin March 15, followed by grades 4-6 and 7 and 9 on March 22. Grades 8 and 10-12 return April 5. Half of each grade will attend Mondays and Tuesdays, the other half on Thursdays and Fridays, with Wednesdays remaining as distance learning days for everyone.

Hickman Mills plans to bring grades pre-K–2 four days a week March 15, plus some selected students in a hybrid model. Then grades three through eight would begin on a hybrid schedule March 22, and high school students begin a hybrid schedule April 5. If vaccinations are delayed, the plans could change.

“The good news is that we’ve partnered with Truman Medical Center to implement inoculations [vaccinations] for all our staff who wish it,” Hickman Mills Superintendent Yaw Obeng announced in late January. “We will insure that we have enough inoculations before we return to our schools so that the spaces we utilize are safe for our students and our staff.”

Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy, like KCPS, has been in an entirely distance-learning model this school year and is watching the developing vaccine situation. The charter school is remaining in virtual learning at this time.

Other districts that have had some in-person learning this year are now hoping to expand soon.

Grandview began phasing in in-person learning last fall, starting with grades pre-K–2, then adding grades 3–5 in a hybrid model. The district opened up its second semester Jan. 25 with Pre-K–2 in school four days a week and grades 3–8 in a hybrid model. But high school students remain in virtual learning.

“The numbers (of Covid-19 cases in the area) are coming down but they’re still extremely high,” Grandview Superintendent Kenny Rodrequez said in a video post before the second semester.

“The positive news is what we’re hearing on the vaccination front,” he said. “Our staff will be able to have access to that vaccine and once that occurs, that’s just going to allow us to bring back more students.”

For districts that held in-person classes, the strain to make it through the first semester didn’t just come from the rising Covid cases, but the area-wide difficulty in having enough substitute teachers and bus drivers to fill in gaps as staffs were affected by quarantines.

“In addition to the challenge of positive cases,” North Kansas City Superintendent Dan Clemens wrote in November, “we are seeing our substitute pool of nearly 600 individuals and our Transportation department of 200 employees being stressed to a breaking point.”

Still, North Kansas City opened the school year Sept. 8 and continued the entire first semester with pre-K–5 attending in-person full time, and in a hybrid model for grades 6–12. The district is continuing that schedule in the second semester.

Fort Osage School District began in September with pre-K–4 in person, and 5–12 in a hybrid model. Feb. 1, the district added grades 5–6 to the students gathering in person full-time. Grades 7–8 join fully in-person Feb. 16, and high schoolers may follow suit in March.

Genesis School has been open in-person for K–4 from the start in September, and hybrid for grades 5–8. The charter school has posted a Covid-19 dashboard throughout the year, monitoring the past week’s and year-to-date totals of school Covid cases and necessary quarantines.

Genesis’ experience matched the experience reported nationally by schools, according to the CDC, that with proper precautions schools have proven to be relatively safe against the pandemic, with children and staff being infected at rates lower than the rates in their communities.

Going forward, school leaders are devising ways to make up lost learning time. LINC is looking to increase learning opportunities in after-school programming. Kansas City Superintendent Mark Bedell said in the district’s January board meeting that he is looking at adding Saturday and evening school opportunities, and extending the length of the summer school season.