DENNIS SHARKEY
Citizen Staff
After hearing from parents the Park Hill School Board voted unanimously at a special meeting to extend a deadline to allow students to opt for an in-person or online learning experience when classes start.
The board also voted to delay the start of school until Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the direction of the Kansas City Missouri Health Department and Platte County Health Department, which are working together. Parents will have until 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6 to change their minds. So far about 3,000 students or 25 percent of the district has signed up for online learning.
Parents wanted additional time to decide after the district revealed a plan to use a hybrid form of teaching that would have kids in school for classes two days a week and virtual learning the other three days of the week.
“I know planning needs to take place but that is true on both sides and we’re asking the same courtesy as we are extending to you,” Shanti Rivers said in an email to the board that was read aloud by board president Kimberlee Ried. “The factors are different now that the hybrid model is in the mix.”
“If this information was available a week ago I would have never signed up for online,” another parent Alison Brokas wrote.
Parents were given two choices of 100 percent in-person learning or a total online learning experience when a deadline was set late last month. Some parents were caught off guard by the new addition of a hybrid model. Amy Owens told board members in a statement that was read by Ried that she’s against any hybrid model.
“Most of our students’ families and faculty have not been social distancing this summer and I don’t see the benefit of the hybrid model,” Owens wrote. “My children deserve better than a two-fifths education for my tax dollars. This hybrid plan should be Plan B and not Plan A.”
Owens also said the school should give the face mask mandate a chance to work. Board members also approved a plan that would require all students and faculty to wear masks while at school. Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd told board members some few exceptions will be made for medical conditions. If students need masks the school will provide them.
Cowherd said there will be training involved with mask wearing and there will be breaks built in throughout the day.
“Sometimes you just need to catch your breath,” Cowherd said. “It’s a lot throughout the day.”
Park Hill will start the school year in a hybrid mode for students sixth through 12th grades with elementary students going to school in person full time. Middle school and high school students will be split into two groups. The first group will be students whose last name begins with the letter A-K. The second group will be for students whose last name begins with L-Z.
For families with split names the entire family of students will be put into the group with the first letter of the last name of the oldest student in the family.
Cowherd said the decision to hold all in person classes for elementary school aged kids came down to logistics and health data. Cowherd said teachers and staff can control the movements and interaction between classes a lot easier at the elementary level.
“We have so much more control at the elementary level than we do at the middle school or high school levels,” Cowherd said. “The challenges of virtual learning at the early ages is real.”
Cowherd also wants parents to understand the hybrid model isn’t a third or new option. The hybrid model, which the district plans on opening the school year with, is a plan to deal with the ever changing landscape with COVID-19.
“It’s simply a tool to use for our face to face option and keep our kids in school as much as we can,” Cowherd said. “We’re know our kids can gain so much more when they can be with teachers. We still have only two options.”
Assistant superintendent for academic services Mike Kimbrel told board members the hybrid model gives the district flexibility to move back to an all in-person class schedule or to all virtual learning if the situation with the virus escalates.
“This is representing what we hope is a dynamic model and chance to move between these based on what is going on with COVID-19 in our community,” Kimbrel said.
Kimbrel said if cases spike and the district moves to an all virtual setting it will look similar to what the district had to do last spring.
“This is absolutely worst-case scenario that we would have to switch to this,” Kimbrel said.
Kimbrel said the hybrid model is set up in weeks to avoid any quick changes to the program if the school switched to all in-person learning or vice versa. Kimbrel said they are sensitive to the needs of parents to have a plan. Kimbrel said it’s also set up that way because of the ever-changing data.
“I don’t see it as something where we would say ‘okay tomorrow we’re in hybrid mode,” Kimbrel said. “We want to make sure we’re not as bouncy as the data.”
The administration also got some push back about the plan from some board members. Treasurer Scott Monsees asked Cowherd if the board was tied to recommendations from the health departments. Cowherd said in a pandemic the district should listen to health officials. Cowherd said if it were up to her the school year would start virtually for all students.
“I think anytime we’re in the middle of a pandemic and a health crisis that we should be listening to our health experts,” Cowherd said. “This is about community spread.”
Monsees said the district has already moved to wearing masks as a requirement and said other factors need to be considered like the social consequences and depression teenagers are facing.
“Does the health department look at all the other factors our teenagers are facing?” Monsees asked. “My biggest concern is we start in hybrid mode and we never get out.”
The models the administration are using show a 14.6 percent positive test rate in Platte County as of July 27. Cowherd said if the positive count goes above 15 percent the recommendation is to move to virtual learning.
“I understand our parents preference would be face to face,” Cowherd said. “I totally get that and that’s our goal as we move forward.”