Over the past couple weeks of online school, the one question on everyone’s mind is, “When are we going back to school?” As much as I personally want to go back to some form of in person schooling, I’m afraid that it may not happen anytime soon. I simply don’t believe that FCPS can justify that it’s worth the risk at this point in time. 

Since online schooling has begun there have already been multiple reports of staff members testing positive for Covid-19 after being in the school building;  there has even been a case reported at Henry Clay which currently has the most students in the county. There are plenty of ways that schools across the country have been attempting to keep students and staff safe while still holding in person classes, but currently the county does not have a set plan or date to return to school in person. This is discouraging to those who want to go back, because a back-to-school plan is not something that can be thrown together in a couple weeks, especially when the numbers of cases in Lexington keeps fluctuating. 

 Another major problem HC faces is overcrowding.  I am currently in a virtual class that holds 37 students. It defeats the purpose of trying to implement plans such as alternating days, where half the students come in one day and the other half another, when half of my class is still nearly 20 students. Not to mention the HVAC system at HC is also entirely unprepared to properly ventilate to prevent an airborne virus.

 Overcrowding in schools across Fayette County would make a proper Covid response nearly impossible. As much as so many of us wish that we could have some semblance of normal schooling, I think it’s important to be aware there are many hurdles to jump before schools can even plan to reopen.

In recent discussions at an FCPS board meeting, a color coded graph was sent out to determine the status of coming back to school based on the amount of positive cases per 100,00 people. This graph was split into four different colors (green, yellow, orange, and red), each representing a scenario increasing in cases/100,000 people from green to red. Fayette County plans to remain doing virtual learning until the district can get into the Yellow which is 1-10 cases per 100,000 people. FCPS currently has 42 active cases, 37 of which are students and 5 being faculty. Fayette County is currently averaging 26.1 cases a day which puts us in the red, or critical state. I think with this information, it’s safe to assume that if Lexington can’t start reducing new cases, we won’t be going back any time soon.