Hancock Place School District in south St. Louis County will begin bringing back its high school students starting Thursday.
The district will be one of the first in St. Louis County to attempt in-person learning for its oldest students. Jennings brought back its 9th-12th graders first, Affton plans to bring high schoolers back next week, and Rockwood School District is looking at a mid-November return.
But Hancock Place is not only coming back quickly, they鈥檙e coming back five days a week, making them one of the first to have a K-12 student body learning in-person all at the same time.
鈥淏ecause of the district being small, and having the spacing, we can meet or exceed every health department recommendation to bring kids back and do it in five days,鈥� said Dr. Kevin Carl, superintendent of Hancock Place. 鈥淪o, if you can do it in five days, for us, it鈥檚 why wouldn鈥檛 you? 鈥�
Only two-thirds of the student body will be back, he said, while the rest will remain virtual. That ratio is consistent with the lower grades who are already in school.
But elsewhere in the county, some districts are just starting to welcome back those lower grades. And plans for getting older students into the classroom remain works-in-progress.
鈥淎t the middle school and high school level, we鈥檙e still exploring what that could look like,鈥� said Ginger Cayce, executive director of communications for Kirkwood School District.
鈥淭heir schedules are different. And you have to remember they鈥檙e content specific teachers at that level. At the elementary school your teacher teaches science, math, reading all in one class. At the middle school and high school level those are content specific,鈥� she said.
Kirkwood will return its kindergarten through fifth grade students in full this week, and approved a plan last Monday to phase in middle schoolers by early November.
That variability among districts鈥攕ome opening faster, others slower鈥攊s due in large part to a decision made by County Executive Sam Page back in August to allow districts to decide for themselves how to bring back students within the county Health Department鈥檚 .
With that autonomy, comes a lot of considerations. School districts have to look at schedules, class sizes, overall enrollment, cleaning schedules, along with parents鈥� and teachers鈥� comfort level with returning. And, of course, data on the ever-evolving pandemic.
鈥淩eally looking at, with our high school students, what the community data is telling us,鈥� said Hancock Place Superintendent Carl. 鈥淪o we鈥檝e been tracking really closely, not just what鈥檚 going on in the state of Missouri, not just what鈥檚 going on in St. Louis County, we really wanted to narrow it down to see what鈥檚 going on in our immediate community.鈥�
That community data, while so far positive for Hancock Place, is proving to be the reason some school districts are not in talks to return students.
鈥淥ne of the data points that the board looked at was the new daily case rate from the past seven days, compared to even the seven days prior to that,鈥� said Kevin Hampton, communications director for the Ferguson-Florissant School District. 鈥淚n almost all of the zip codes that encompass our school district those new daily case rates had increased by 25% or more.鈥�
Ferguson-Florissant鈥檚 school board decided last Wednesday their students are staying virtual鈥攗ntil at least January. The district is one of the county鈥檚 largest, and has a high percentage of Black students. Research shows Black Americans are at greater risk of coronavirus complications.
Ferguson-Florissant is joined by other districts, like Maplewood Richmond-Heights and Hazelwood, that also have yet to bring their students back.
While school reopening plans differ across districts, officials across the board emphasized the situation remains fluid.
鈥淭here were four pillars to our approach to COVID: safety, schedule, access and support,鈥� Hampton said. 鈥淥ver all of that, is safety.鈥�
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