KANSAS CITY METRO (KCTV) — Several Kansas City area schools canceled classes mid-this week due to massive staff shortages due to COVID.
Olathe School District and Kansas City, KS, public schools are among the districts that have closed for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. About 800 staff and 1,500 students looked sick and positive with COVID-19 before Olathe pulled the plug. KCK Schools hasn’t released specific numbers linked to their closures, but their online COVID dashboard — updated last week — shows 227 positive cases among students and 163 positive cases among staff.
“We will look at the numbers over the next few days to see where we intend to go to school on Thursday,” Olathe Sup said. Brent Yeager. “But if we were to get the numbers between that time and that show to be as high or higher than last week, then we’ll be forced to make that tough call again.”
The districts would still provide food to the family, providing curbside service on both days.
As COVID cases and sick calls soar this winter, many schools across the country have turned to distance learning for children to learn from. This is a challenge in Kansas, where only 40 hours of distance learning are allowed. This is a restriction the governor would like to change.
“The kids have no education at all, instead of distance learning,” said Governor Laura Kelly. “And I think they really need to rethink that statute and do it quickly, and address this issue so that our kids don’t lose days and weeks and months of learning.”
The 40-hour distance 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 massive staff shortages—such as Olathe—their superintendents say that even though they can turn to distance learning, there aren’t enough healthy workers to do so.
Other schools this weekend include Knob Noster, St. Joseph’s, Guadalupe Centers Charter School and Gordon Parks Charter School. The Warrensburg School District, Missouri side, is distance learning.
,