BARREN COUNTY, Ky. — The Barren County School District sits in a red zone, meaning for every 100,000 residents, 25+ test positive for coronavirus. These numbers have left some parents and students concerned about returning to in-person instruction.

The school adopted two models of learning in August, giving students the option to learn virtually or be a part of the in-person hybrid model, where they attend school Monday/Wednesday, Tuesday/Thursday, and every other Friday. 

Originally, the hybrid model was a two-week solution to the ever-growing problem of COVID-19, but the district pushed back the date to offer hybrid classes until Fall Break. With Fall Break now around the corner, the district came out last week and said it would extend the hybrid model until December. 

The constant changes leave some students and parents, like Kim Putney, frustrated and confused. 

“He’s [Putney’s high school son] on the fence of being frustrated of just like, he wants to pull out and just do virtual until everything goes back to normal, because he wants everything to, you know, if you’re going to do hybrid, do hybrid, if you’re going to do every other Friday, do every other Friday,” said Putney. 

While other districts around the Commonwealth have had the option to return to in-person classes full time, Gov. Andy Beshear advises schools in red zones to transition to online instruction only. Putney does not know what will happen in the coming weeks and feels frustrated with the lack of consistency between the State Board of Education and her local school district. 

“It’s just concerning because it's confusing because you don’t know where we’re going to go,” said Putney. 

The school keeps parents informed with its COVID-19 dashboard. The district reports three active cases from in-person classes, with two students and one faculty member. The one faculty case comes from Barren County High School where Putney’s son, Evan, spends half of his week. 

Putney's two youngest have been learning from home the past six weeks, due to Putney’s concern of them having to wear masks all day. The students would report to Eastern Elementary School, which has seen no cases, giving Putney hope for normalcy once again. 

Updating the dashboard every day, the district sent a survey out to parents asking their confidence in returning to in-person learning after fall break. Confident about returning students to school, Putney feels her answers on the survey will no longer matter or translate due to the concerns of the wider Barren County community. 

“By watching the chart, the active cases chart, here we are week six, I think, and they’ve had no cases.  So I feel that its safe enough for them to go back, but if we are in the red zone, what are we going to do? I hope for 2021 that they can all go back in person and things change and everyone can just return to school in person because every child wants to go,” said Putney. 

The district hopes to offer in-person classes, full time, sometime in December, but it's still working with the local health department to come up with the best course of action.