BCPS Family, We just concluded our meeting with the local Health Department and as expected we are going to need to operate using Remote learning next week (October 26th - 30th). As I mentioned on Monday, we have a standing meeting with the Health Department every Friday morning to get input from them before we ultimately make a decision on what learning model to implement for the following week. We have been doing this since the beginning of the school year and we will continue this practice for as long as we need to. There are multiple factors that go into making this decision. I'll try to explain the main factors below: The Incident Rate for Bullitt County. This is the number that is updated daily by the Department for Public Health and used to assign colors (green, yellow, orange, and red) to counties. The Department for Public Health and the Department of Education recommends that districts use the incident rate number reported Thursday evening to make learning model decisions for the following week. Our rate yesterday was 26.4 which categorizes Bullitt County as a "red" county (anything over 25 is considered "red"). The county incident rate represents the average number of new cases per day (over the last 7 days) per 100,000 people. The number is valuable in telling us if more cases are being reported inside the county. What the number doesn't tell us is the reasons behind why that number may be up or down. Are more or fewer tests being given? Is there a single facility that experienced an outbreak that caused the number to rise significantly? Are the positive cases located in a specific area or are they spread throughout the county? These and other questions are the basis of our weekly conversation with the Health Department and are why that meeting is so valuable for us in gathering information to make an informed decision. What is the status of our internal district numbers? How many staff members and students are having to be quarantined because of potential exposure or because they tested positive for the virus? Is that number increasing, decreasing, or declining? What are the factors behind the trend? These numbers are updated daily when school is in session and can found on the state dashboard HERE. What is our staff availability? If we have increased numbers of quarantines, do we have adequate staffing to fill vacancies? This week we are hit hard in our transportation department and in our custodial department (all from outside exposures). We are also experiencing an issue with substitutes. There seems to be an increase in the number of non-covid related absences at the beginning and end of the week that are making it difficult to fill. We are actively recruiting additional help, so if you know someone who might be interested, please send them our way. Even if we were in the "orange" or "yellow" category, it would have been tough for us to continue next week in person in order to provide the necessary services to ensure safety and smooth operations. 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. 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. 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. In the meantime, please continue to encourage those you have influence over to follow the recommended guidelines when in public, so we can get this incident rate back to a place where our efforts to mitigate the spread are manageable. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your patience, grace, and support. If there is anything at all I can do to better support you, please let me know. Jesse Bacon, Ed.D. Superintendent Bullitt County Public Schools | 1040 Highway 44 East, Shepherdsville, KY 40165