KANSAS CITY METRO (KCTV) — Multiple Kansas City area schools canceled class for the middle of this week because of mass staff shortages caused by COVID.
The Olathe School District and Kansas City, KS, Public Schools are among the districts that have shut down for Tuesday and Wednesday. Olathe saw about 800 staffers and 1,500 students out sick and positive with COVID-19 before pulling the plug. KCK Schools has not released specific numbers associated with their closing, but their online COVID dashboard—updated last week—shows 227 positive cases among students and 163 positive cases among staff.
“We’ll watch the numbers the next couple of days to see where we are with every intention of having school on Thursday,” said Olathe Supt. Brent Yeager. “But if we were to get numbers between now and then that show we were as high or higher than we were last week, then we’d be forced to make that tough call again.”
The districts will still provide meals to family, providing curbside service both off days.
As COVID cases and sick calls have increased this winter, many schools across the country have turned to remote learning to keep kids learning. That’s a challenge in Kansas, where only 40 hours of remote learning is allowed. That’s a restriction the governor would like to change.
“Instead of kids having remote learning, they have no learning,” said Gov. Laura Kelly. “And I think they do really need to revisit that statute and do it quickly, and resolve this issue so our kids don’t lose days and weeks and months of learning.”
The 40-hour remote learning limit was part of last year’s Education Appropriations Bill, which was passed by the Kansas Legislature and signed into law by the governor.
For some districts with mass staff shortages—such as Olathe—their superintendents say even if they could turn to remote learning, there’s not enough healthy staff to do so.
Other schools out in the middle of this week include Knob Noster, St. Joseph, Guadalupe Centers Charter School and Gordon Parks Charter School. Warrensburg School District, on the Missouri side, is remote learning.
