The Clinton County School District opted to start in-person school on August 31, despite Governor Andy Beshear’s recommendation of Kentucky schools beginning classes on September 28. Now, Clinton County Schools will move to Non-Traditional Instruction or NTI days until October 12 due to the number of COVID-19 cases in the county.

Clinton County Superintendent Dr. Tim Parson said schools aren’t the problem yet.

“The thing we measure every day is the metric school decision index and we didn’t put a hard cut off score on there,” Parson said. “We knew when that number got above six we would really consider it. School is not part of the problem yet, but as those numbers go up and we keep having school, it’s inevitable that it would be a problem.”

Parson said the Department of Public Health is classifying Clinton County as a county with critical spread.

“I think in the state of Kentucky there are six red counties right now and we are one of them,” Parson said. “Right now we have one case in the entire district, when it comes to school, a virtual teacher at ECC (Early Childhood Center). We don’t know of any positive cases of COVID in the district other than that one. We don’t know of any kids who are quarantined because of school, but the numbers in the county are getting as such, like with any other communicable disease, school will spread it if it’s rampant in the county.”

Being flexible is something Parson said he and his staff knew they had to be this year.

“I think if we keep going, we are going to make it worse,” Parson said. “There will be some cases I think will be released this week.”

Parson said there was a drive-thru testing day in the parking lot of the board office on Friday and he knows there are several cases that have turned up positive, but he doesn’t have a confirmed number as of Monday morning.

“There were about 35 tests performed Friday and I know there will be some positive cases come back,” Parson said. “I don’t think it’s going to get better any time soon.”

Parson said the first thing the Healthy Kid’s Clinic will do is call those people who got tested to tell them if they are positive or not. The clinic will then contact the health department and report those positive cases followed by phone calls for contact tracing.

“If you are showing symptoms or come in contact with anyone who is positive, let us know,” Parson said. “We will send them home before the health department tells them to. We tell our people, getting tested is not mandated, but the quarantine part, they don’t have a choice on that.”

Making the decision on NTI days is a call the superintendent can make on his own. As with snow or flu, Parson can review the data and put the students into that form of instruction without board approval. However, Parson said he has discussed the situation the county is in with members of the school board.

“They get just as many questions about school as I do,” Parson said. “We all talk about it and come to some kind of consensus about it.”

With the schools going on a small break until October 12, Parson said sports participation hasn’t changed as of yet.

“Sports is fine,” Parson said. “Eleven kids lined up snapping a ball is not the same thing as 700 to 800 kids coming to school and riding buses and getting in the same room together. It’s just not the same thing.”

Parson is very optimistic sports will be okay, but if there is an outbreak on the team, then the entire team will have to be quarantined.

“That’s very isolated,” Parson said. “Parents know the risk, players know the risk, but if one person gets sick at the middle school for example, they’ve been in contact with the buses and everything. It’s just more complicated. I’ve been for the kids the whole time. Like with sports, they need as much normalcy as you can give them.”

One reason Parson said the decision to remain on NTI days until October 12, was because he didn’t think having to come back to school for two or three days then go on fall break was very productive.

“If you look at a couple weeks then you are into the week before fall break,” Parson said. “I don’t know what sense it make to come to school for three days then take another week off. We will let it all die out and see what happens.”

The reason for going to school for the first two days of this week Parson said was to give parents enough time to figure out a plan for day-care for their children.

“Parents need to work and I get that,” Parson said. “It’s better than them finding out at 7 o’clock last night (Sunday) that they can’t send them to school tomorrow (Monday).”

Since school has started in-person instruction, Parson said he has seen a decrease of about 10 to 15 percent of students going from in-person to virtual.

“When the state changed their guidelines with the masks and saying you have to wear it all day regardless, with mostly the high and middle schools, we probably lost 10 to 15 percent,” Parson said.

With all students going virtual on Wednesday, Parson said there are options out there for those who don’t have Internet at home.

“We already have a list of parents who need access to the internet,” Parson said. “The state has allocated eight million dollars and we will get a little ‘one-time’ money to help parents with internet. The Family Resource Center will probably call parents today (Monday) and parents will have a couple of options.”

Parson said Mediacom is one option for those parents or households without internet.

“Mediacom is making internet available for those who have students in their house for about $10 a month and that’s a really good deal,” Parson said. “If they can’t get Mediacom based on where they live, their next option is a Bluegrass Mifi boxes. If they can’t get Mediacom or Bluegrass where they live, then the only other option is wifi hot spots here in town.”

Each parking lot at each school is designated as a wifi hot spot for people needing internet access for students on virtual or students doing NTI.