With the passage of Senate Bill 1 during last week’s special session of the General Assembly, districts will have more flexibility on how to operate during the pandemic and the ability to make most decisions about COVID-19 mitigation protocols.

In addition to the 10 Non-Traditional Instruction days districts already had, districts will now be able to use 20 temporary remote instruction days that can be used for a single building or even a classroom while the rest of the district remains open.

The bill also allows districts to decide whether they will require masks to be worn in schools and to decide their own quarantine guidelines.

School districts will also have more flexibility on hiring substitute teachers and to bring retired teachers back to the classroom.

In the video above, KSBA’s Director of Advocacy Eric Kennedy breaks down the nine-page bill so districts can learn about the flexibilities provided in the bill.

As of Thursday afternoon, 81 percent of Kentucky public school districts had announced they would continue to require students, staff and visitors to wear masks after the statewide mask mandate expires on Friday.

Senate Bill 1, which passed during the special session, nullified the mask mandate the Kentucky Board of Education enacted in August. Districts had five working days to decide whether to enact their own mask requirements.

Less than 24 hours before the deadline, 138 districts had enacted mask requirements, while three districts (Science Hill Ind., Gallatin County and Burgin Ind.) opted not to require masks. Thirty districts had not yet announced a decision, with some boards schedule to vote Thursday night.

Many districts tied mask requirements to the state’s COVID-19 incidence rate color-coded chart, requiring mask only when the county has substantial or high transmission (red or orange), some districts specified that the mandate will be in place at least until two weeks after fall break and others said the district will re-evaluate as case levels decrease.

SB 1 also called for districts to create their own COVID-19 school operations plans. Under those plans, several districts have changed their quarantine guidelines to implement “Test to Stay” programs in which students who would otherwise be quarantined are tested daily and allowed to remain in school if negative.

Other districts, including Warren County, have adopted an alternative quarantine policy under which students who were properly masked but would have otherwise been identified as a close contact will not be required to quarantine unless they are experiencing symptoms. Parents will also have the choice to quarantine their student.

The Kentucky Department of Public Health advised against such a policy during Tuesday’s Superintendents Webcast. Dr. Connie White, deputy health commissioner, said such a policy is not test to stay, “it’s just stay.”

“We don’t feel like that is rigorous enough,” White said. “We know that the ability to spread the virus starts a couple of days before the test is positive, so are essentially having someone that could be spreading the virus before you even know it.”

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will use up to $8.8 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to provide reimbursements to Kentucky school district employees and local school board members who have been vaccinated or get vaccinated by Dec. 1.

All full- and part-time employees of public school districts are eligible for a one-time vaccination incentive payment of $100 after being fully vaccinated against COVID-19. There will be enough funding to reimburse districts for approximately 88,000 local school district staff, KDE officials said.

“Getting people vaccinated is one of the main ways we’re going to be able to get out of this pandemic and get back into our classrooms as usual,” said Education Commissioner Jason Glass. “We hope this will encourage people to get vaccinated in order to protect their students, colleagues and themselves.”

Glass noted during Tuesday’s Superintendents Webcast that the vaccine incentive also applies to local school board members.

Districts must pay employees first in order to receive reimbursement from KDE. Glass also encouraged districts to match the vaccine incentive. As of Thursday at least two districts, Casey County and Robertson County, had announced that they would match KDE’s payment.

To find a vaccination site near you, visit vaccines.gov. You also can text your zip code to 438829 to receive three vaccine locations near you.

Nominations are now open for KSBA's 2022 First Degree Scholarships. Once again, the association will provide four college-bound high school seniors each with $2,500 scholarships for the pursuit of postsecondary degrees. As the name suggests, scholarship recipients will be the first in their immediate families to complete a postsecondary degree.

New this year, KSBA is excited to announce we will also be awarding at least 24 career and technical education (CTE) scholarships to Kentucky public high school students (one male and one female student in each of KSBA’s 12 regions). CTE scholarships will fund Industry Certification assessments for students still in high school. Eligible nominees come from immediate families whose members (parents, guardians, siblings) have not previously earned a postsecondary degree.

In total, KSBA will award approximately $22,000 in scholarships for students.

Questions about KSBA's scholarship opportunities? Contact Josh Shoulta.

The First Degree Scholarship program is made possible by the generous support of our members, partners and education leadership like you. If you wish to help KSBA strengthen our scholarship offerings, please consider a meaningful gift to the KSBA Educational Foundation. Learn how to give.

All remaining regional meeting dates are listed below. More details, including meeting times and locations are available via the Regional Meeting page of KSBA's website. Districts will receive emailed invitations to their respective regional meetings from the host district/regional chair in the weeks.

Not sure which region your district belongs to? View a listing of districts by region. If you have a conflict on the date of your assigned region’s meeting, you may request to attend another region’s meeting by contacting the host region directly.

Education Commissioner Jason Glass has appointed four new representatives to fill vacancies on the state’s Local School Board Members Advisory Council (LSBMAC). KSBA congratulates Brenda Rose of Whitley Co., Johar Rajiv of Muhlenberg Co., Ruschelle Hamilton of Breathitt Co. and Brandon Rutherford of Madison Co. on their appointments.

KSBA is grateful to all school board members who serve (or have served) on the LSBMAC for their contributions to important conversations taking place at the state level on issues facing our Commonwealth’s public schools. View all members of the LSBMAC below and visit KDE’s website for more information on the work of the advisory council. The council meets twice annually to discuss how KDE initiatives and decisions impact school boards and local districts The next meeting is Oct. 14.

View session criteria and proposal form here. The deadline is Sept. 20.

“The best thing about teaching is you get lost in the process. It’s all about what the students do,” said Carver during the Sept. 9 virtual ceremony held by the Kentucky Department of Education and Vavoline Inc. “Thank you to all of my students who helped me get here.”

KSBA's “Learn and Earn” webinar series offers relevant topics at noon (ET) on the second Wednesday of each month, providing school board members with convenient opportunities to earn required training credits. Pre-registration is required, and space is limited to 100 viewers each session. All Learn and Earn webinars count for 1 hour of board training credit.

KSBA’s next Learn and Earn webinar, "Essentials of Effective Evaluations," is Oct. 13. This one-hour virtual training meets mandated superintendent evaluation training requirement for board members. One of the most important responsibilities of board members is to hire and evaluate their superintendents. Effective evaluation takes planning, preparation, and ongoing team conversations. This session helps board members find answers to essential questions such as why, what, and how, while exploring skills necessary to become effective evaluators in an effective process.

As coronavirus cases fell in early summer, the hopes of a normal school year in Kentucky's public schools rose. But a late-summer surge fueled by the Delta variant has led to a difficult start to the new school year. The September Advocate cover story looks at how districts are dealing with COVID-19 concerns as they started back to school.

Also in the September Advocate:

Get Smart, a webinar series designed to answer questions about issues in the K-12 sector, began Sept. 15 and continues through Nov. 10. Trane partnered with K-12 industry experts for the five-episode series. The conversations will include how to use energy contracting to your school’s advantage, the state of America’s K-12 facilities, technical career pathways for students, efficient and healthy schools, and creating productive learning environments.

Click here to register for any of the webinar episodes.

KSBA is often called on by media outlets to discuss important school-related issues. Here are some of the stories to which your association contributed or was featured in recent weeks.

Sept. 1: Staff Shortages From Quarantines Close Ky. Schools

Sept. 1: Courier-Journal - As more Kentucky schools close due to COVID-19, state lawmakers weigh their options

Sept. 4: New York Times - Kentucky’s schools struggle as coronavirus outbreaks close entire districts.

Sept. 6: WDRB - Kentucky legislators prepare to return for special session to address COVID-19 surge

Sept. 10: CNN - CDC study: Unvaccinated 11 times more likely to die from Covid-19

Sept. 11: Lexington Herald-Leader: Fayette school board will decide Monday whether to continue making masks mandatory

Sept. 14: WPFL - All JCPS Employees Must Get Vaccinated Or Undergo Regular COVID Testing

Sept. 15: Ashland Daily Independent - Superintendent search begins in Carter

Sept. 15: Associated Press: More Kentucky school districts extending mask requirements

Sept. 15: The News-Enterprise: Marion superintendent to take a leave of absence

KSBA is accepting nominations for its PEAK Award. The deadline is Tuesday, Sept. 21 and more information is available on our website. The prestigious award recognizes outstanding public school efforts aimed at enhancing student learning skills and, in doing so, promotes the positive impact of public education in the Commonwealth.

The entry guidelines and links to stories on some of the recent winners are available at KSBA.org/PEAK.aspx. If you have questions, please email Matt McCarty or call 800.372.2962 ext. 1209.

This edition of KSBA Aware is made possible in part