As the economy in Kentucky is slowly opening back up to the public, there are still many questions that need to be answered before students will be permitted to attend school in the fall.

According to Superintendent Dr. Tim Parson, he hopes to have a plan together by the first of July.

“There are two things that primarily need to happen before we can communicate a detailed plan for reopening,” Parson said. “One of them is we have to get some hard and fast guidelines from the Department of Public Health.”

Parson said the Department of Public Health has started giving out information, but most of that is just more questions.

“They are saying here are the things you need to think about, but as far as somebody saying this is what you need to do in order to have school, well, they haven’t given us those guidelines,” Parson said “Some of the guidelines out there now are just like anything else, it’s changing. It evolves.”

One of the biggest issues that most schools in Kentucky will face will be transportation.

“The major thing now that is making people nervous about putting together a plan for getting back into school is the buses,” Parson said. “They are saying that kids will wear a mask on a bus and will be sitting every other seat and staggered from side to side. That’s 11 to 12 kids on a bus.”

Parson said discussions with different groups led to putting together a plan for getting kids to school if they could only haul 11 or 12 students at a time. It was putting some bus drivers with making four or five trips each route to and from the school.

“If that’s what they say we have to do then there is not a scenario to where we can get every kid to school,” Parson said.

Another guideline could possibly put desks at six feet apart inside the classroom.

“If you do that then it goes from 20 something to 10 or 11 in a room,” Parson said.

Once the guidance is out there, Parson believes it will be just that … guidance.

“Nobody is going to make us do that,” Parson said. “If you follow all their guidance as to what they have put out three as of today, there is not a scenario where every kid comes to school every day. We just can’t do it. There are not enough people, we don’t have enough room in the buildings and we just can’t pay for it.”

Parson said if the district could do everything in their power to possibly follow the guidelines as closely as possible, then he said it will start to look like a situation where kids will be allowed back to school.

“What if you said they sit one to a seat, but sat in every seat on the bus and had to wear a mask?” Parson said. “What if we put five feet of space between desks in the classroom and we put 15 kids in there? So, what it comes down to is, do you follow their guidance to a T and if you do, you probably can’t have school. But, if you have kids at school every day and get real close to their guidelines, you could possibly open yourself up to a lawsuit.”

With everything being put into consideration, Parson worries about the local impact of not having every kid in school every day.

“I worry about the local impact on unemployment if we don’t have school,” Parson said. “I also worry about the liability of having school if somebody says this is what you should do and you don’t do it,” Parson said. “It’s a little bit of a Catch 22. The other thing is how we fund school with attendance and transportation and food services, any scenario that involves every kid not coming to school every day reduces our funding drastically.”

Parson said all superintendents in the state meet with the Commissioner of Education every Tuesday and it could be that funding could be flexible.

“Until they say that each district will get a base level of funding, you won’t hear of any districts having an elaborate plan,” Parson said. “The guidelines need to be hardened from the public health saying this is what it is and what it needs to be and then we need some assurance about how funding is going to work from KDE (Kentucky Department of Education). If we get those two things, then we will get a plan out there.”

By the first of July, Parson said he feels they have to have something out there pertaining to school because the public will start to think about school at that time.

“It does look like we will start back on a normal date,” Parson said.

As of right now, school is set to begin on August 13.

Parson said the governor said to have a plan where schools start in July, on time, or on a later date.

“I don’t see a play to where we start in July,” Parson said. “We can’t get everything together in a month. We have ordered I can’t tell you how many gallons of hand sanitizer and we have ordered 10,000 masks, isolation gowns and there’s no way we can have all that ready by July, so we will shoot for that normal start date.”

With only one active case in the county as of press deadline, it is assumed that some parents could possibly be worried about sending their children back to school in August.

“For those parents, I think we are going to have to offer a virtual program to where they can learn and be enrolled and learn it all from home and not have to come,” Parson said. “That may impact the number of students who have to come into the building anyways.”

One term that has been floating around involving school is roll enclosure.

“Even when we start back to school, whether or not we continue to come face to face, will be determined on local outbreaks,” Parson said. “If the virus starts to have an outbreak, then we will be forced to retreat into this roll enclosure, this home-based model, kind of like a non-traditional instruction day, for two weeks, three weeks, a month … until it dies down and we are able to come back.”

Parson said he believes by offering a virtual option, around 10 to 25 percent of parents will choose this path as opposed to sending their kids to school.

“If you are a high schooler or middle schooler and your grades are pretty good, then it may be something that is more feasible for them,” Parson said. “I worry more about the little kids because they need that face-to-face interaction with a teacher, but that could be the same population of people who may be more nervous about sending their children to school.”

When and if school comes back in session by the fall, Parson said it could be that a practice of “co-horting” will be in place.

“It’s likely for the kids who do come to school, will be with the same small group of kids all day, so they won’t be splitting up and going to different classes,” Parson said. “The teachers would come to their class instead of the kids going out. At the end of the day we will know every person your son or daughter came into contact with. If there was an outbreak in that classroom then we can contain them and not have to worry about the whole school having a problem.”

Once school does go back in session in August, the guidance as of now is that every adult in the building will have to wear a mask all day. Students in transition, either on the bus or in the hallways will have to wear masks, but Parson said once inside the classrooms, if the same kids are around each other all day, then more than likely they won’t have to wear masks inside the classroom.

“That would be tough,” Parson said. “Coming and going they would have to wear a masks. If there are kids with special needs and can’t wear a masks then they just can’t wear a mask.”

Once a plan gets in place to be finalized, Parson believes the district will need to get approval from the health department in order to make sure precautions are in place.

“Unless there is an outbreak, I would guess the guidance is going to get more relaxed,” Parson said. “I think we will be able to have every kid every day, but it won’t look like it always did. It will be 15 to 16 kids in a class, it will be rotating teachers and not kids, they won’t be eating in the cafeteria and won’t be in the gym together. It will look different, but it will be an opportunity for them to come to school every day and give parents the ability to work full time while their kids are getting an education.”