Board Meeting Recap: Athletics and extracurricular activities reinstated and phase-in plan for primary education

During the Sept. 9 SMSD Board Meeting, Superintendent Dr. Michael Fulton announced the phase-in plan for elementary students to go back to school in-person, and the board also made a 5-2 decision to continue sports and other extracurricular activities.

The phase-in from virtual to in-person learning for primary education will take effect Oct. 5. Prior to starting the hybrid coursework, elementary school parents will receive a letter on Sept. 13 allowing them to reevaluate whether they’d like their child to learn remotely or in-person for the rest of the year. If they’d like to stick to their original decision, the form does not need to be resubmitted.

“Now we’re at a point where we can begin to move from where we’re at to ultimately where the county does allow us to be which is to have all students in school,” Fulton said during the board meeting. “This is a transition into that model, knowing that COVID-19 could be with us for quite a while, so we want to build sustainable models that will keep us in school.”

During the next two weeks, the district will reevaluate class size, schedules and staffing before switching gears to hybrid learning on Oct. 5 for Pre-K-2, and Oct. 12 for 3-6. The district hopes to have elementary school be fully in-person by Oct. 19.

Since secondary schools move amongst classes throughout the day, integrating a hybrid method is more of a challenge especially when considering more hands-on classes like woodshop and art classes. Because of this, the idea of moving middle and high schools to hybrid would be more plausible when cases are below 10%.

In addition to the plans for elementary students going back in-person, the board passed the motion to resume high school athletics and all other KHSAA activities while following the Johnson County Department of Health and Education and KHSAA guidelines such as proper hygiene, social distancing practices and individual equipment.

According to senior Hanna Robinett, hearing the news of her rescheduled varsity golf season left her squealing and jumping as she finished up some personal swings on the golf course. 

“This is my chance to show recruiters what type of player I am and figure out where I want to go and who I want to play for,” Robinett said. 

Due to the NCAA’s suspension of all in-person recruiting for D1 sports, which went into effect last spring and expired Sept. 1, Robinett will now have a chance to be scouted alongside other Kansas schools.  

For all sporting events, there will be a cap on attendance that is restricted to direct family members only. There will be no student section permitted and watching games behind any fences outside of sports complexes will be restricted by police officers. 

During the board meeting, concerns were brought up about the COVID-19 cases that resulted in summer conditioning being shut down. The Board clarified that it was not due to conditioning exposure and that the transmission of COVID-19 occurred outside the athletic environment.

Despite the precautions the district is ready to take and the county’s Health Department’s guidelines, the board continued to emphasize the survival of school sports depends on students’ willingness to comply with these rules.

“I think Dr. Kramer had the best quote of the night for our students, ‘You don’t live the expectation, you exceed the expectation,’ board member Jamie Borgman said. “The expectation is that if this is approved, it’s yours to lose. We have to do everything we can so that if this is approved, we don’t lose it, and that is on you. We’re here to support you, we’re here to set you up for success but ultimately the decision is yours.”