State guidance may advise Christian County Public Schools to close to in-person instruction in the near future, but Superintendent Chris Bentzel says it’s his intention to continue with the current plan through at least fall break.
Bentzel notes that earlier this week, the Kentucky Department of Public Health and the Governor’s Office released new guidance recommending districts close in-person learning if the incident rate in a county rises above 25 cases per day out of a scaled 100,000 people over a seven-day rolling average.
He says the local health department has indicated Christian County is projected to go into that category in the coming week.
There were 26 total cases associated with the district, as of last Friday, and Bentzel says contact tracing has not indicated any of them were contracted during in-person learning. One case was spread on an extracurricular team that was immediately suspended.
He says a majority of the district’s cases have come from either a close contact where the student was already in quarantine, an outside of school activity or an extracurricular event. Five of the current cases are in the virtual learning academy where they learn exclusively from home.
He says in the coming week, the district will begin a system of benchmark assessments to see what educational gaps students have as they begin the recovery process from loss of learning in the spring.
Social distancing, mask-wearing, hygiene and other guidelines will continue to be followed, according to Bentzel.
He asks local government officials, the health department and community members to work with the district in partnership as decisions have to be made and says it’s his intention to continue with the hybrid plan for middle and high school and full capacity for elementary schools through at least fall break, which is October 5-9.
Read entire statement below:
Statement from CCPS Superintendent Chris Bentzel @BentzelChris @SWKEDC @Hopkinsville_Ky @hccchamber @CountyMilitary pic.twitter.com/WsMRGj7tP4
— Christian Co Schools (@Christian_Co270) September 21, 2020