Category: High School Sports

KCK school board approves winter sports

In a change from its previous action not to allow fall sports, the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education voted 5-2 Tuesday night to approve winter sports, including basketball.

The Unified Government Health Department had recommended that schools not play indoor winter sports because of the risk of COVID-19.

Practices can begin Jan. 4, with games starting Jan. 18. The action applies only to high schools, according to board members. The board will require all athletes and their parents to sign a statement that they are aware of the Health Department recommendation, whatever it is at the time they sign the waiver.

On Oct. 30 the Health Department issued winter sports guidelines recommending against indoor sports because of the risk of transmitting COVID-19, especially the risk among spectators.

It also issued guidance for school districts that decide to play winter sports, including number of fans allowed and cohorting athletes.

Students have been writing messages to the board and also sending messages to local media that they want to play sports. At one point, they held up signs outside the Health Department letting them know about it.

Yolanda Clark, a board member who voted for winter sports, said her vote means they are trusting parents to make the decisions for their students.

Wanda Brownlee Paige, who voted against the motion, said she wanted everyone to be safe and that meant a lot to her.

Dr. Stacy Yeager said she wanted equity and equality with the other districts around them that have been playing sports successfully. It is very important for students to get that opportunity to play sports, she said.

Dr. Valdenia Winn, who voted against the motion, said the positivity rate remains too high in Wyandotte County, and this pandemic is not under control. Not only Wyandotte County, but also the state of Kansas is now spiking, she said.

Dr. Winn said the UG’s current positivity rate was listed at 17 percent on the UG Health Department website.

District officials presenting the proposal to go ahead with winter sports said they looked at gating criteria from the state of Kansas, and Wyandotte County was listed at lower numbers in the KDHE statistics.

District health officials explained that the KDHE was counting all the tests given to people in the county, even if it was to the same person several times, while the UG Health Department was only counting people one time, even if they had five tests that week. The way the state calculated the figures made the rate appear lower than the UG’s figures, according to the district health official.

Paige said she saw presentations today that said the state and hospitals COVID-19 rates are going off the chart. The U.S. also has a problem and seems to act like they don’t, she said.

Janey Humphries, who voted yes, said since they’re not starting practice until Jan. 4, after the holidays, it would all be subject to change according to what the health conditions are at that time.

Tammie Romstad, district athletic director, presented information that most of the schools in Kansas were playing sports. There were 38 COVID-19 sports clusters in Kansas, which resulted in 338 positive COVID-19 cases, one hospitalization and one death, according to her information.

According to Romstad, Turner, Bonner Springs and Piper schools have told the district they will be playing winter sports, and will wear masks at all times, even while competing. There will be no spectators and each gym will be limited to 45 people only. Bishop Ward High School is planning on playing at home when possible and will wear masks, according to Romstad. There will be no spectators.

At the time they talked to the district officials, Johnson County schools were planning to compete in all sports, wearing masks off the court, with limited spectators, according to Romstad.

The Kansas City, Missouri schools were planning to compete in all sports, with masks on only when they are off courts, and limited spectators.

Romstad said wrestling is not included in the sports that they will start on Jan. 4. Because it is high risk, they will reevaluate it on Jan. 4, she said.

Bowling, swimming and basketball practices will start Jan. 4, according to Romstad.

The athletes will continue conditioning in November through Dec. 18, following mitigation procedures, she said.

The delay of winter sports practices until Jan. 4 will allow for students to focus on their grades, Romstad said. By not competing for the first two weeks, they will have time not to mix the teams until after 14 days of practice, with plenty of time to quarantine players after holiday gatherings, according to Romstad. They will be allowed to compete in post-season with a smaller number of games in the schedule, she said.

There will be no spectators at winter games, Romstad said.

With no spectators allowed, the KCKPS high school games will be live-streamed for home games, according to Romstad.

UG Health Department strongly recommends against winter sports and activities in schools

The Unified Government Health Department on Friday sent a letter to the school districts in Wyandotte County strongly recommending that schools not allow winter indoor sports or activities.

The sports would include basketball and wrestling, and other indoor winter sports, according to the Health Department.

The letter stated that it is a recommendation and not an order, and the school board for each district would make the decision on whether to allow winter sports.

The UG Health Department recommendation follows on the heels of a similar recommendation by the Johnson County Health Department against playing winter sports.

The indoor setting of winter sports is important, according to the health experts. The UG Health Department also expects to see a larger increase in the spread of the virus related to indoor gatherings around the upcoming holidays.

“One place where we have the best chance to control the increased spread of the virus is within our schools,” the UG Health Department letter stated. “Our overarching goal has always been to protect the health and well-being of students, teachers, school staff and families by carefully considering all risks and weighing them against the benefits of social interactions and learning modes.”

Janell Friesen, a spokesman for the UG Health Department, said there is a concern about a higher risk of spread of COVID-19 in the winter months.

With so many of the winter activities and sports being indoors, there’s a greater risk of spread of COVID-19 in schools, and it could potentially result in making it hard to keep kids in classrooms, she said.

The UG Health Department also outlined guidance for schools and sports and activities clubs that choose not to follow the recommendation against winter sports.

Those recommendations included carefully cohorting participating students; quickly identifying infections and taking steps to prevent spread of the virus to others; limiting spectator attendance to immediate family only; and regularly monitoring for symptoms among students, coaches and staff.

The Health Department has had ongoing communication with the schools, Friesen said, including regular communication with superintendents in the area about COVID-19. The Health Department’s epidemiology team also works very closely with school nurses, she said. They are now working on providing testing and supplies for schools.

The similarity to Johnson County’s sports announcement is not by accident. Friesen said there were some leaders involved in trying to align school sports policy a little in the metropolitan area, and that it should reduce confusion.

Friesen said the fall sports order, prohibiting fall sports in school that are close contact sports, will not apply any more. The mask mandate is still in place in Wyandotte County, she added.

No new orders are in place now, although there is one amendment to an order that will allow flexibility for how many students are in a classroom, she said. Previously 50 percent of capacity was allowed, now the number will be based on square footage, with 36 square feet required per student.

Friesen said the Health Department is trying to work closely with the schools and offer support, and will continue to provide guidance and work with them on it.

In the Turner Public Schools, Lauren Aiello, community liaison, said that the Turner Board of Education would consider the recommendation at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday.

Janey Humphries, a Kansas City, Kansas, school board member, said that the KCK school board has not discussed winter sports yet and she had not had a chance to see the Health Department’s recommendation yet. A KCK district spokesman could not be reached.

The Piper school district could not be reached.

Students lobby for sports

Earlier this year, students in Wyandotte County held a rally and protest against the ban on fall sports. Students have started a petition stating they want to play sports, with more than 150 signatures.

Several students in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools sent messages and letters to the KCK school board that were read at the Oct. 27 school board meeting, and were published in the KCK board agenda.

Several of the messages were the same sentence: “We want to play!”

Anderson Jones wrote, “We want to play!!! Please give everybody our respectable seasons so we can make it out and be the future!!!”

Randall Johnson wrote, “I’m a student at Wyandotte high school that plays football and I seen a post from someone I know from Washington would you mind looking at these stats to determine if we can play sports again mind you Johnson county has more cases than us now keep that in mind would you thank you.”

Michael Reed wrote, “We want to play! We’ve fought long and hard to keep cautions while playing the sport we love, we deserve this. Sincerely, a player from Harmon High School in KCK.”

Kyren Angelo wrote, “My name is Kyren Angelo I am a senior at Washington high school, and I took it upon myself to start a petition about sports same as the surrounding school districts who are playing sports right now. So far every we have 164 responses from athletes and parents all saying “yes” they would like sports to start again in USD500 if this petition could be showed at the board meeting tomorrow it would be greatly appreciated! You know from experience you only get one senior year please help us live our full high school experience ! For me basketball is all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life and as of right now I have no college scholarships offers but I know for a fact if we get the chance to play this season I’ll be playing at the next level ! That’s just not for me these sports are outlets for some of us, some kids have trouble at home so they use sports as their source of happiness. Some kids are also wanting to make a career in their sport to provide for their families ! We promise follow all protocols and policies for Covid-19 to keep everyone safe same as we did at the football workouts we have over the course of the summer at Washington high school and ended with ZERO CASES ! Please don’t let fear affect you all’s judgment for our last chance to do what we love with our life ! PLEASE ! I plan to keep the petition active to show our efforts and how much this means to us…
Sincerely
A kid who wants a fair chance”

To see a previous story on the Health Department’s recommendations on winter sports, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/changes-coming-for-wyandotte-county-schools-and-covid-19-rules/.

The letter to the school districts is online at https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/wintersportsrecommendationletter.pdf.

More information about the Health Department’s recommendations for winter sports is online at https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/10302020-ugphdwintersportsguidancenr.pdf.

KCKPS students may be able to play fall sports in the spring

Kansas City, Kansas, Public School students who were hoping to play fall sports may get to play those sports next spring.

In a two-hour internet special meeting on Friday afternoon, the KCK school board voted unanimously to accept the Kansas State High School Activities Association proposal to participate in fall sports in the spring, if health conditions allow.

The district would have to meet gating criteria before any sports could take place. Those criteria include information such as the community’s positivity rate and other health information. That rate is the number of positive COVID-19 tests divided by the number of total tests. Currently, the number is over 17 percent in Wyandotte County, which is in the “red zone.”

On Sept. 8, the school board voted to allow student athletes to participate in conditioning or workouts beginning Sept. 14. That date has now been pushed back to Sept. 21 after a meeting with principals, district officials said at the board meeting.

The board’s 7-0 vote for the KSHSAA plan is not a guarantee that they will play sports, Board President Randy Lopez said at the meeting. The decision to play sports will be based on conditions closer to that time, he said. Today’s vote is giving the students an opportunity, he said.

The KCK school board had suspended fall sports and some activities because of the risk of COVID-19. The Unified Government Health Department issued an order Aug. 13 restricting fall sports in Wyandotte County and prohibiting football, volleyball, soccer and marching band events in Wyandotte County. The action was met with some student protests.

After some other local schools and clubs decided to go out of the county to play sports in other counties, the Health Department then issued more guidance on fall sports, on Sept. 4. Those who participate in sports outside of the county were asked to stay in their same “cohorts” while they are at school under the new guidelines.

Tammie Romstad, the district’s director of athletics, said that KSHSAA had offered an option of playing in the spring to schools that could not play sports in the fall. The option also would apply to schools that started sports in the fall but were unable to complete the season, she said.

Fall sports teams that are in Class 5A and 6A could compete in one class together in the spring, she said. The KSHSAA has made up a schedule that will be used in the spring if there are 50 percent or more of the schools that couldn’t compete in the fall.

If there are less than 50 percent, the district would make up its own schedule under the KSHSAA rules, she said. That could include a shortened season of perhaps five games where district schools play each other.

The school board also voted 5-2 to approve a proposal that would use the state gating criteria.

According to the proposal that was presented Sept. 8 by the district athletic director, and was discussed Sept. 11, a COVID-19 response team would evaluate the gating criteria, making a decision on Fridays for the next week, based on the previous two weeks.

The gating criteria would determine the start of the winter and spring sports, with winter sports practices scheduled to start Nov. 16, according to the proposal.

The members of the COVID-19 response team would be the district’s chief of staff, a medical specialist, a district nurse and the athletic director, according to the proposal.

Voting against the proposal were board members Dr. Valdenia Winn and Wanda Brownlee Paige.

“I’m concerned that the responsibility is not in the right hands, and the board should not be delegating, giving away its authority, so I vote no,” Dr. Winn said.

The passage of the gating criteria item takes the authority away from the school board and places it with school district personnel. Dr. Winn said the board and district have the liability for whatever happens as a result of the actions, and the committee does not.

According to Dr. Alicia Miguel, interim superintendent, the COVID-19 response team would be able to meet every Friday to discuss the gating criteria, while the school board typically does not meet every Friday. It meets every two weeks on Tuesday evenings, with special meetings added if needed.

When asked, the school board’s attorney said during the meeting that a school district committee would not be subject to the Kansas Open Meetings Act. The meetings would not be public meetings, according to the attorney. If they were school board meetings, or board committees, they would be open to the public, according to the attorney.

Janey Humphries, a board member, proposed a motion that would have at least one board member represented on the district’s COVID-19 response team, and that a report be made to the school board members after the end of each of the team’s meetings.

The vote was 4-3 to add a board member and to have a report to the board. Voting in favor were Yolanda Clark, Janey Humphries, Wanda Brownlee Paige and Dr. Valdenia Winn, and voting against it were Maxine Drew, Dr. Stacey Yeager and Randy Lopez.

Romstad also discussed some plans to help students with a “showcase” presentation that they can use to show college coaches. The showcase presentation would include information about the students’ athleticism and skills such as speed and strength. It might include some film clips from their previous years on the team. The showcase might be worked on during the conditioning sessions.

In other action, the school board also approved an update to board policies on bullying, intimidation and retaliation. The policies are online on the Sept. 11 meeting agenda at https://go.boarddocs.com/ks/kckps/Board.nsf/vpublic?open, items 2A and 2B.