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The start of school for students in Concordia Unified School District 333 will likely be delayed, but it won't be pushed back until after the Labor Day weekend as had been directed in an executive order issued by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly on Monday.
On a motion to allow the governor's executive order to be signed, the Kansas State Board of Education was deadlocked with a 5-5 vote during a meeting on Wednesday morning.
A majority vote by the board was needed for the governor to sign the order and for it to go into effect.
USD 333 superintendent of schools Quentin Breese said that the district's administrative team is now working on a plan of when school will start.
“We waited to see what this announcement was,” Breese said, “I want to be supportive of the state board.”
The USD 333 board of education will meet at noon on Thursday to discuss the calendar for the 2020-2021 school year.
School had been scheduled to start on August 11.
“We are going to work to likely modify our calendar a little bit to provide a little bit more time for us to prepare our staff,” Breese said.
District staff is scheduled to report on August 6.
“If we start August 6 with staff and then bring kids in on August 11, that doesn't really give us enough time to do proper staff training on what we are going to do. So we are probably going to look at bumping back,” Breese said.
Breese said that the district could possibly delay the start of school by a week. That decision will be made by the board of education.
“That will give us an opportunity to get our staff in and really spend some quality time with them on some of the new preparations that we are going to have to be doing,” Breese said.
Kelly shared the details of Executive Order #20-58 on Monday that delays schools beginning any student instruction from August through September 8.
The order could only be signed if approved by the Kansas Board of Education.
Executive Order #20-58 also included all athletics and all other extracurricular activities.
Following the decision by the State Board of Education on the order, Breese said that USD 333 will continue with its summer activities and believes athletics and activities will proceed as planned unless the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) decides otherwise.
“We will kind of see how KSHSAA responds to this announcement. They were ready to make an announcement last Friday when the governor's announcement came out,” Breese said, “Now that the state board has acted, I think KSHSAA will probably come out with some precautionary statements of how to do things safely.”
Also on Monday, Kelly signed Executive Order #20-59 that outlines mitigation procedures schools must take to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Kansas students and teachers. It mandates face coverings for all students, faculty, staff, vendors and other visitors to public or private K-12 school buildings or facilities and six feet social distancing except for in-person instruction in classrooms when masks or other face coverings are worn.
The order also requires hand sanitizer in all classrooms, and all students and faculty must sanitize their hands no less than once every hour and all individuals entering the facilities must have their temperatures checked.
Exceptions for students wearing face coverings include:
Eating;
Activities that cannot be safely conducted with a mask or other face covering;
Children who are not students and are 5 years of age or under;
Persons with a medical condition, mental health condition, or disability that prevents wearing a face covering;
Persons who are deaf or hard of hearing or communicating with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, where the ability to see the mouth is essential for communication;
Persons for whom wearing a face covering would create a risk to the person related to their work.
Breese said that USD 333 will adhere to Executive Order #20-59.
The district has temperature scanners and masks ordered.
The district plans on providing reusable masks for students and staff.