JCPS Will Open 2022-23 School Year Masked With Jefferson County ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Masks will be required for Jefferson County Public Schools students and staff when the 2022-23 school year begins Wednesday as local COVID-19 caseloads and hospitalizations remain high.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention metrics have Jefferson County in "red" for the third week in a row, meaning Kentucky's largest school district will continue to require face coverings.

"Having to wear masks is not something any of us want," Superintendent Marty Pollio said Friday during a back-to-school press conference at Farnsley Middle.

The district's COVID-19 policies, passed unanimously by the board July 19, require masks if Jefferson County hits the highest metric in the CDC's COVID-19 community levels map. Face coverings will be optional once Jefferson County exits that status.

"I really was hoping that we would be in the 'yellow' or medium range last night," Pollio said. "... Unfortunately, that did not occur."

The mandatory masking policy at JCPS, one of the only large school districts in the U.S. requiring face coverings according to a review of school policies by data aggregator Burbio, has drawn much criticism.

Count Leigh Ann Sherrer among those frustrated by the district's "disappointing" COVID-19 masking policy.

Sherrer hasn't told her daughter, who is entering third grade, about the district's mandatory masking policy for the first week of the 2022-23 school year that starts Wednesday.

"I'm afraid of the reaction," she said. "... She's not yet known a normal year of school without masks, without social distancing, without being afraid to lower her mask and not knowing if it's safe or not to be at school and talk to her friends, so children have really paid too much. It's time for a normal school year for our children."

About 150 protested against the policy before Tuesday's Jefferson County Board of Education meeting, and an ongoing membership survey by the Jefferson County Teachers Association had 57% of nearly 2,500 respondents opposed or strongly opposed to the district's masking policy compared to 36% in support or strong support and 7% neutral as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

That means more than 1,400 JCPS teachers disagree with the district's masking policy and nearly 900 support it, according to those results.

"I was not surprised by the data that came out from the JCTA poll. In fact, I thought it may even be higher," Pollio said. "... There's still out of that poll nearly 1,000 teachers, it was a little less than 1,000, who still wanted universal masking for 'red,' so it's a very, very difficult issue that has swamped my inbox no matter what decision is made.

"I'd like more than anyone for it to go away so that we don't have to deal with it anymore, but unfortunately it's there."

Eva Stone, JCPS health services manager, said she's "comfortable" with the district being only one of seven large school districts still requiring masks. JCPS "has done well comparatively to other districts" in terms of COVID-19 mitigation, she said.

"We're all frustrated. We're tired," Stone said. "We want life to go back to where it was before the pandemic, but the fact is that COVID is still out there, that nationally there's still thousands of people dying every week from COVID."

Pollio said if the CDC changes its COVID-19 guidance for schools, he will suggest the school board follow suit.

"That policy has been in place and remains in place until our board decides to make a change to that," he said.

Others hope the board changes the district's COVID-19 masking policy sooner rather than later.

"I'm really holding out hope at this point that our board will reconvene and look at the results of the teacher survey and understand that this is not what parents want, this is definitely not what students want, and make a decision that's right for our children," Sherrer said.

Expect bus delays

JCPS officials also warned families Friday to expect “significant delays” in bus service until 70 uncovered routes get full-time drivers. Bus drivers on staff will need to pick up those runs after finishing their own routes.

The district will communicate with families if their bus routes are affected by bus driver vacancies, said Marcus Dobbs, the district’s executive administrator of transportation.

“If your child is on one of those uncovered runs or delayed buses and you have the ability to drive them to and from school or to carpool in any way, we encourage you to do that,” Dobbs said during Friday’s news conference. “That will help us out tremendously.”

Some bus delays could be up to an hour, Pollio said. Any student late for school because of bus delays will be excused, he said.

“I think that’s why we encourage parents as much as we can if they can transport their kids to do that,” Pollio said.

JCPS is in the process of hiring 50 drivers and expects another 40 to 50 to either complete their applications or get scheduled for job interviews, Dobbs said.

“Our job fair that we had a couple of weeks ago was very successful,” he said.

Classroom vacancies under 100

Pollio said the district had whittled the number of certified teaching vacancies below 100, down from the 125 classroom openings he reported to the board Tuesday.

JCPS has made about 100 job offers this week, and about 60 candidates accepted roles with the district, he said. At least 96% of the district’s classrooms will be covered by certified teachers when schools open Wednesday for the 2022-23 school year, he said.

“What I see in many districts, large districts especially, is 10% vacancy rates,” Pollio said.

Pollio has said he expects all JCPS classrooms will be covered by certified teachers when the new school year begins.

Dozens of security officers ready

JCPS will open the 2022-23 school year with 16 school security officers on staff and another 14 district security monitors, Chief Operations Officer Chris Perkins said.

Those security staffers will provide coverage for about 20 geographic zones centered around high schools and surrounding middle and elementary schools, he said, noting that the 14 security monitors are trying to enroll in law enforcement training.

“We’re committed to interviewing candidates, and our onboarding will continue throughout the school year,” Perkins said.

The district’s new security plan, which essentially gives the district its own police force, is in its infancy as JCPS hires officers. Pollio said he had met with State School Security Marshal Ben Wilcox to discuss the JCPS security plan.

Kentucky law requires districts to have school resource officers working in every school and to consult with Wilcox’s office if that can’t happen because of funding or personnel issues.

School districts throughout the state have fallen about 600 officers short of hitting that goal, Pollio said.

“There’s going to have to be some action taken if that’s what the legislature wants, and there's going to have to be some funding that is going to be provided for the officers,” he said. “… For us to hire 155 of our officers is going to be very, very challenging, and I think that goes all across the state.”

School safety administrators have been assigned to every middle and high school, and six will share coverage of the district’s elementary schools, Perkins said.

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