HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler Grade School is going to their flex learning plan with a plan to return September 30. Five classrooms were impacted by the COVID-19 cases at the school in that either there was a case in the classroom, or the case is a student that lives with a teacher in another classroom.
"Five out of the 13 teachers would need to quarantine," said superintendent Cindy Couchman. "At that point, we sort of reflected as an admin team on the health and safety and the confidence of sending your kids to the building and how confident staff would be in coming to the building at that point. That's when we decided as a team to close Buhler Grade School to in person learning."
Monday is the day to pick up the technology to do the work for the rest of the period. The fact that the day without instruction happens to fall on September 21 this year is an issue.
"We get our funding based upon who is actually in their seat September 21," Couchman said. "Then, if you're not there, you have to do two things. You have to show that you were in attendance some time before September 21 and sometime after September 21, but before October 4. I think that we will all be back in session by October 4, but we want to cross our Ts and dot our Is on that funding. That's what it takes."
The intent is for all of the current cases to clear by the return to school, but if more pop up, they will likely go on a classroom by classroom basis. That was the original intent of the Return to Learn plan, but the number of classrooms affected prompted the overall closure in this case. All other USD 313 schools will remain open at this time.