KENTUCKY — Two Kentucky school districts will transition to remote learning next week as coronavirus cases in Kentucky rise.


What You Need To Know

  • Students in Bullitt, Meade counties to return to remote learning next week

  • Announcements made Friday morning

  • Both counties have high coronavirus incident rates

  • Bullitt County hopeful to return Nov. 4, Meade County may return earlier

Students in both Bullitt and Meade counties will be learning from home from Oct. 26-30. The two counties are categorized as "red," meaning their coronavirus incident rates are 25 or more, representing the average number of new COVID-19 cases per day per 100,000 people over the last seven days.

Bullitt County's incident rate stands at 26.4 while Meade County's is 26.5, up from 19.5 last Thursday. 

Bullitt County Public School's superintendent Jesse Bacon made the announcement after the district held its weekly meeting with the local Health Department for input before making a decision on what learning model to implement the following week.

"I know this decision is probably expected and is met with disappointment from many of you. I can assure you no one is more disappointed than I am," wrote Bacon in a message on the district's website. "With the amount of student movement and the number of potential exposures at the secondary level, we are working on a plan to address that concern and hopefully give us a better opportunity to remain open to in-person learning for a longer period of time."

Bacon noted other issues the district is facing, such as a lack of staff in the transportation and custodial departments due to outside exposure. BCPS is also experiencing an issue with substitutes as there's an increase in the number of non-coronavirus related absences at the beginning and end of this week. Bacon said that even if the district fell into the "orange" or "yellow" categories, it would have been difficult for the district to continue with in-person classes next week.

"It is my hope (and there is some reason to be optimistic) that next Thursday's incident map will have us back to a place where we can resume in-person learning on November 4th," said Bacon.

The plan for Meade County could change, however. In a Facebook post, the Meade County School District said it would review the Kentucky Department of Public Health Incidence Map, and if Meade County's incident rate is below 25 on Sunday, Oct. 25, students would return to in-person classes next week.

- Information Regarding In-Person Instruction for October 26-30th - Updated: October 23, 2020 Based on the official map...

Posted by Meade County School District on Friday, October 23, 2020