VERSAILLES, Ky. (LEX 18) — Woodford County Schools has presented two proposals to the county school board. The first, allows parents to choose between in-person or virtual learning. The second option is online only. But a survey shows most parents plan to send their students to school.
Woodford County Schools Superintendent Scott Hawkins says they've been looking at the possibilities for this coming school year with no vaccine in place, since last school year ended.
The school district did a survey with parents, and that's how they came up with the model to give parents a choice. "56-57% of parents said they were going to send their kids back to school.And 75% said they want as much in-person instruction as possible," Hawkins said.
That's why the county is strongly leaning towards getting kids back in the classroom, with virtual learning as the back-up plan. "You're looking at it not only from an academic standpoint, but from a social and emotional standpoint. I do believe it's important to bring our kids back into the classroom. We want to try to do that as safely as we can," Hawkins said.
Superintendent Hawkins said administrators have made many changes, like cleaning classrooms more often and doing temperature checks. "For our elementary schools, we would look at special area teachers: art, music, library, coming in to the classroom, as opposed to students moving to those classes," Hawkins said.
Under the state guidelines, Woodford County will be requiring masks if students are closer than 6 feet.
"We'll probably have to create one way traffic in hallways. Have stairwells that, this one is an up stairwell and this one is a down stairwell, to avoid as much students crossing one another as possible," Hawkins said.
School was originally scheduled to start on August 13, but was pushed back to August 26. Hawkins says the county will need those extra two weeks for planning.
Superintendent Hawkins says that if parents are given an option between in-person and online learning, they would be able to switch their children from classroom to home, or vice versa, after fall, winter or spring breaks.
The school board will vote between the two proposals on July 14th, after the regularly scheduled virtual Town Hall meeting from 6-8pm.
