EVSC announces it will delay start of school year by two weeks
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — During a late Friday afternoon news conference, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. Superintendent David Smith announced EVSC schools will delay the start of the 2020-21 school year by two weeks.
The first day of school will now be Wednesday, Aug. 19.
Despite the delayed start, Smith said the district will follow the 180-day instructional calendar required by the Indiana Department of Education. In meeting this requirement, Smith said adjustments to fall and winter break periods could be made.
"In essence, what we're doing is picking up the calendar and moving it back two weeks. We will adjust some of the dates within the calendar, but ... we are still going to have 180 days in our school calendar," Smith said.
In explaining the adjustment, Smith noted the EVSC will continue to make adjustments to its plans as necessary in response to conditions in Vanderburgh County due to COVID-19.
"Unfortunately, just since July 1, we've seen an exponential explosion in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Vanderburgh County, growing to 582 in just this portion of July," Smith said.
As a result, schools will welcome back students in "staggered start dates" between August 19 and 21, Smith said.
Based on alphabetical order, students will return to their respective schools. This method, Smith said, will allow them to adjust to the safety measures in place, which will include the use of face coverings and social distancing guidelines.
The district’s new reopening plan will be outlined “page-by-page” during a Facebook Live presentation next week, giving EVSC families a better sense of what to expect.
During the meeting, the EVSC will also discuss the metrics the district will use to decide how schools will operate as the state of the pandemic changes. Smith said there will be three levels of operation – green, yellow and red.
Green would be the district's current reopening plan, which includes the opening of school facilities and two short and long-term virtual learning options. Smith said yellow would likely incite “rolling school closures,” with individual schools shutting down due to high levels of COVID-19 exposure. And similar to last school year, Smith said level red would require a district-wide closing.
A time for the Facebook Live event will be announced at a later date.
"The success of our reopening plan ... is going to be dependent on the success of Vanderburgh County in making sure that we slow the growth or making certain there is no growth in the number of positive COVID-19 cases,” he said.
Smith urged the public continue to follow health and safety guidelines to reverse the recent trajectory of the virus in the county and assist the district in opening safely.
"I'm imploring the residents of Vanderburgh County to please to do what you need to do in order to make certain that our businesses can stay open and our schools can open,” Smith pleaded the community. “It's really the personal responsibility of everyone that lives and works in Vanderburgh County."
Earlier this summer, Smith announced schools would reopen on Aug. 5 with students having two options — attending school in person or enrolling in EVSC's Virtual Academy. Kindergarten through eighth grade students were told they needed to commit to at least nine weeks for the virtual academy and high school students at least a semester.
There have been a number of concerns raised about the safety for students and teachers with the return to school as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the area.
Vanderburgh County topped 1,000 total COVID-19 cases on Friday with 47 more, according to the Indiana State Department of Health's statewide dashboard of cases.
The county has had 1,010 cases since the first one was reported on March 19.
Among those, at least 348 cases are active, according to the Vanderburgh County Health Department's dashboard. But that number is likely too low. The local department, which typically reports data slower than the ISDH, shows just 961 total cases instead of 1,010.
Vanderburgh County's "positivity rate" — the percentage of people tested who come up positive for COVID-19 — continued its steady climb Friday. As recently as July 2, it was 3.7 percent. On Friday, it was 5.4 percent.
On June 24 — just 23 days ago — the county had 359 cases. It means 64 percent of the current total has been accumulated since then.
The proliferation of cases prompted Mayor Lloyd Winnecke to announce a mask order on July 10 that went into effect Wednesday. The City Council heard the first reading of a pending ordinance mandating face coverings in most situations during its meeting Monday night. The County Commissioners, during their regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting, voted 3-0 for a resolution "recommending citizens to wear face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Vanderburgh County."
Educational institutions though are exempt from Winnecke's mask order in that they aren’t required to wear a mask where social distancing is possible.
Smith has said students would be required to wear masks on busses, in hallways and in other spaces where social distancing isn't possible. Many parents and teachers have raised concerns about masks not being mandated in classrooms and others have said they don't want students to have to wear masks at school.
Earlier this week EVSC announced students at three schools would be shifting around to accommodate social distancing.
Some students from Highland and Hebron Elementary schools, and all students of Harwood Preparatory Academy will have to be shuffled to new locations.
According to a letter by Smith, fourth- and fifth-grade students, teachers and staff at Highland and Hebron will be moved to the Harwood campus. And teachers, staff and students at Harwood would move to Academy for Innovative Studies (the old North High School) facility on Diamond Avenue in order to make room for Highland and Hebron students.
"The only way to accomplish social distancing in classrooms at both Highland and Hebron is to move the two upper-grade levels out of each building to an alternative site," the letter said. "The remaining students can then be spread out into enough classrooms and learning spaces so the appropriate number of students can be placed into homerooms."