Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman offered an update on recent proposals for changes aimed at helping schools better represent all the students they serve and the road ahead as schools hope to reopen for the fall.
“The task force includes representatives of Kentucky’s educational cooperatives, educational partner organizations such as the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, Kentucky School Board Association, Kentucky Parent Teacher Association, Kentucky Education Association and Kentucky High School Athletic Association, as well as Kentucky Educational Television, the Southern Regional Education Board and other relevant partners,” Lt. Gov. Coleman said. “This task force focuses on providing timely information, research and instructional resources to our school districts as they dealt with an unprecedented length of school closure and are now trying to figure out ways to reopen amid the crisis.”
On March 16, the Kentucky Department of Education created the Education Continuation Task Force, which is comprised of K-12 education stakeholders, that is charged with developing plans to continue education in the state during this unprecedented time.
Right now, the task force is working to create guidance to help districts plan for fall.
J. Michael Brown, secretary for the Governor’s Executive Cabinet, spoke about current conditions and efforts to keep staff and inmates healthy and safe at the state’s correctional facilities.
Kentucky currently is performing mass testing of all inmates and staff members at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women (KCIW) in Shelby County. The move comes after three staffers and 11 inmates tested positive for COVID-19. More than 270 of the facility’s 639 inmates have been tested thus far.
“First, good news, no one is hospitalized from the facility. At the end of May three employees tested positive and 11 inmates, so we used what we learned from Green River and we immediately stepped up mitigation efforts and started mass testing,” said Secretary Brown. “We will complete testing at KCIW by the end of this week. We are confident using the methods we’ve learned that we will bring case numbers at KCIW under control.”
At Green River Correctional Complex where a previous outbreak sickened dozens, an initial retesting found 10 new positive coronavirus cases among the 876 retested.