LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Oldham County School Board has approved moving the start date for students to Aug. 24.
Officials approved the move during a meeting Monday and came just hours after Gov. Andy Beshear recommended public and private schools delay their start until the third week of August.
Superintendent Greg Schultz said in a post to the district’s website on July 22 that pushing back the date gives them extra time to fill vacant teaching positions so they would have adequate staff to educate students.
Pushing back the date also allows OCS to monitor rising COVID-19 cases.
"It's our goal, we continue to work towards that every single day, every single minute it seems like, but there are some things out there we still do not have answers for, and we may not have answers for at least another week or two, and that's tied to why we asked for the extension to begin with," Schultz said.
District officials said there will be no change in middle and high school start and end times. Major breaks throughout the school year are expected to remain in place.
OCS will also give students the option of in-person or virtual learning. However, the deadline for parents to enroll their child into the Virtual Learning Academy is Aug. 7.
“There’s a lot going on we’re trying to be proactive and think of everything that we can possibly do every scenario,” OCS Director of Communications Lori McDowell said. “I can’t even tell you how many hours we are putting in every day on weekends to make this work.”
So far, about 1,200 students of the district’s 12,500 have registered for the Virtual Learning Academy.
Those students will do their classwork from home, with a flexible schedule.
“We have some students who are compromised, that their parents do not want them to return for in-person instruction,” McDowell said. “We have some that just aren’t comfortable, we have some that don’t want to wear the mask all day.”
McDowell believes more students will register for the virtual option in the next few weeks.
She says it’s important to have options. Virtual learning works for some but not all, and some kids rely on the support they receive by physically going to school.
McDowell says the district has been walking through a student’s day, in an effort to think of every possible scenario.
“Is there a way we can make this look better? Is there a way we can make this safer?”
Right now, the last day for the 2020-2021 school year will be on June 2.
Contact reporter Rose McBride at rmcbride@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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