Local districts have no options on masks in schools

If you don’t like the fact that students, teachers and staff have to wear masks while inside schools, then you shouldn’t take it out on local officials, who are still being mandated by the state to require mask wearing.

While the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a ruling Saturday against Gov. Andy Beshear’s Aug. 10 executive order over masking in schools, the ruling doesn’t address a separate Aug. 12 Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) emergency administrative regulation over masking in schools, which remains in place.

Confused? Don’t feel bad. It’s kind of complicated.

The News Journal consulted Corbin attorney Tim Crawford Tuesday to help explain the issue.

Crawford has contracts to represent about a dozen school districts, including Whitley County, Knox County, and Barbourville Independent. In addition, he also represents the Kentucky Education Development Cooperative out of Lexington, which is composed of 65 school districts.

Crawford explained that there were two mask mandates for schools, which had been issued.

One was an executive order issued by the governor, and the other was an emergency administrative regulation issued by the Kentucky Board of Education.

The Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling Saturday dealt with an injunction filed in a lawsuit over Beshear’s executive order, but not the Kentucky Board of Education emergency administrative regulation, which remains in effect, Crawford explained.

While Beshear’s executive order applied to public and private schools, the Kentucky School Board only applies to public schools, Crawford noted.

Crawford explained that Saturday’s order dissolved an injunction that Franklin Circuit Court had issued in regards to the governor’s executive order, but didn’t rule on the constitutionality of the executive order under the Kentucky constitution.

The Kentucky Supreme Court sent the case back Franklin Circuit Court to rule on the issue of the constitutionality of the lawsuit under Kentucky laws.

On Monday, Beshear withdrew his Aug. 10 executive order, but the Kentucky School Board emergency administrative regulation remains in effect.

Williamsburg Superintendent Tim Melton said many people may not realize that local school districts don’t have an option regarding the masks.

“We are following what KBE has put out. Our biggest goal is to get students in this building as much as possible. That is what we are trying to do with the measures that we are taking and the measures that have been handed down,” Melton said.

Whitley County Superintendent John Siler added that it would be unlawful for him to take the mask mandate off at this point.

“That is not something that needs to be done as the superintendent of this school district to go against what is lawful. That would not be the example I would want to set for our students, employees or the community,” Siler said.

Corbin Superintendent Dave Cox said that his district’s stance is also to follow the KBE’s regulations in regards to masking.

“We want to stay in-person as long as we can. We feel like if we have the kids in our presence we will do a lot better job educating them,” he added.

COVID-19 prevention efforts

Local school districts are also taking other steps to try and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Siler said that each bus is being disinfected after both the morning and afternoon routes.

“We also have COVID cleaners and disinfectants in the buildings. We are going through and wiping down with a disinfectant the high touch surface areas, such as door handles, pencil sharpeners, desk tops and things of that nature. Obviously we are doing our best to distance the chairs and desks out in all the classrooms throughout the districts,” Siler said. “Also, there is the mandate from the Kentucky Board of Education that students wear masks.”

In addition, the district is running the air-conditioning for longer periods of time before and after school in order to bring in more fresh air in the building.

Siler said Friday afternoon that so far this school year the district has been doing fairly well in regards to illness.

“We have very few teachers and district employees that are in any kind of isolation due to positive cases or quarantine due to close contact. The same with students. It is a very small number of students, who have tested positive for COVID. We plan on keeping the doors open and continuing to have school,” Siler said.

Melton said that his district is also taking steps to prevent COVID-19.

“We are social distancing. When possible, we are three feet apart. The other part is sanitation. We are making sure that we have hand sanitizer. We are making sure that students are taught at a younger age proper handwashing techniques,” Melton said.

Williamsburg starts classes Wednesday of this week.

Williamsburg is offering a virtual learning option for students this fall, but so far the number of students signing up for virtual classes is small. Out of about 840 students, only about 30 have signed up so far for virtual learning, Melton said Monday afternoon.

“We are calling it the Williamsburg Virtual Academy. Students are able to take synchronous classes. If a child is in high school and they have an 8 a.m. class, then they will be in that 8 a.m. class with that teacher. In middle school, it is the same way,” Melton said. “In elementary school, there are reading blocks and elementary blocks that students will be a part of. We have a gambit of kindergarten through 12^th grade students that are choosing to be virtual.”

Cox said that Corbin is taking many of the same COVID-19 prevention steps as the other districts, such as running the air-conditioning for longer periods of time before and after classes in addition to disinfecting between classes.

It has also entered into a contract with an out of district company to provide four people to assist with custodial duties as the district was having difficulties finding substitutes.

“We are doing the spacing where ever we can. With the masking, we have several layers of mitigation. The main thing is we are keeping things as clean as we can for the kids,” he noted.

He added that the district is also providing mask breaks for students throughout the day.

In regards to virtual learning, Corbin is providing that as an option primarily for kids in grades 6 – 12, but that so far the number of students opting for virtual instruction is nearly two dozen students between the middle school and the high school.

Unlike last year, 100 percent of the classes aren’t being streamed 100 percent of the time for the virtual learning, at least not so far.