Many students last year thought that they did not want to go to school and wished for a break from school, but never imagined being physically out of the school building for the next several months. Now many students are wondering when they will physically be allowed to return to Lafayette. On January 5th, the Fayette County School Board will have a conversation whether we should go back to in-person school at least next semester or not.

Since March, all Fayette County’s Public Schools have been closed to in-person learning, except for a few small groups of targeted instruction during November. Second semester will begin January 7th for students with NTI 2DL . The January 5th meeting will look at local health department data to determine if it is safe enough to have students return to in person instruction within the building. As of December 18, Kentucky hospitalizes 1817 patients, and has a 8.45 positivity rate. Compared to border states, Kentucky’s total casas ranks 6th out of 8 countries, which is 234,021 cases.

When we are concerned about this COVID situation, school reopening looks difficult, but lots of students, and even parents want to reopen school the second semester. According to WKYT News, a group of parents and students were protesting outside of the office of the Fayette County School Board meeting on October 26th. They claim that it’s hard to learn over a screen. Furthermore, some families mentioned inconsistent Wi-Fi, which hinders a student’s progress.

Last time Fayette County took a survey of families, 65 percent suggested that we should go back to some form of in person instruction. The October 26th Board of Education meeting board members discussed the feasibility of a hybrid model and determined that when conditions were safe, our schools would provide full in-person learning.

Going back to in person instruction has both pros and cons. Students can learn face to face and the learning quality goes up. Con is the possibility of getting COVID. We still do not know perfectly how COVID will harm students long-term. While there are treatments now, many people continue to fall seriously ill and even die due to Covid and its complications. If we think about our health, we should stay at home, and continue virtual learning next semester. However, we have voices that want to go back to school, and that should cause us to think much more deeply.

Governor Andy Beshear mentions that this winter break vacation should be very limited as far as contact with others outside of our household. If we follow these words, we might get back to in-person learning.
LHS School building.