PIKE COUNTY, Ky. — Another school district is temporarily halting classes due to COVID-19 exposure. Pike County School District is the latest county impacted by the virus spreading in schools.
What You Need To Know
- Pike County School District is temporarily closing due to rapid spread of COVID-19 in students and teachers
- The rural district will be closed through Sept. 6
- It joins at least 13 other districts who've closed since classes began in early August
Schools in the rural eastern Kentucky county will be temporarily closed from Aug. 30 - Sept. 6, slated to return Sept. 7.
District officials announced the closure in a message on Sunday, citing an "increase in COVID-related sickness and quarantines" in staff and students.
Pike County is far from the first Kentucky school district to face this problem, though. Over a dozen school districts have temporarily closed at some point since classes began in early August. Students in Franklin County are currently on an NTI-only schedule until at least Sept. 7.
According to the Kentucky School Board Association, Pike County would be around the 14th district to close due to COVID-19 this year. Recent county-wide closures include Letcher, Carter, and Casey.
Casey County Schools to move to NTI next week due to COVID-19. https://t.co/i9GzMUJFh5
— KSBA (@ksbanews) August 28, 2021
In the previous school year, schools had unlimited non-traditional instruction days, which gave school districts like Wasson’s the ability to pivot to at-home learning in the event of an outbreak. In order to have that option again, the state legislature would have to pass a new law to add more days.
A law passed by the state's GOP-dominated General Assembly this year, made schools return to standard limitations on non-traditional instruction or ‘NTI’ days. Now, once schools go past the limit of 10 NTI days, more instructional days have to be added on to the end of the school year.
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