Boyle County is now a red zone in terms of its COVID-19 cases, which means it currently sees 25 or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people daily, according to the official Team Kentucky source for information concerning COVID-19. Its rate is currently 26.1 cases per 100,000 people daily, according to an interactive map of Kentucky cases provided on the site. Schools’ next steps are determined by the COVID-19 Mode of Instruction Metrics for K-12 Education, guidance created in partnership between the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the Kentucky Department of Education.

Boyle County Schools

According to a statement from Boyle County Schools posted on their website, after the county became a red zone, the district spoke with the local health department and found the county’s higher incidence rate “is a result of community spread that’s not attributable to a specific long-term care facility, correctional facility, etc.”

The statement reads that the district’s “incidence numbers have been manageable.” Click here for an online dashboard of numbers of active cases among staff, as well as the numbers of those quarantined, whether due to school-related or non-school-related exposure, which is continuously updated. Though the numbers are “manageable” according to the statement, the district is shutting down in-person learning at the schools from Nov. 9 to Nov. 13. This is because of the guidance from the COVID-19 Mode of Instruction Metrics for K-12 Education. The district will check what color based on number of cases the county is each Thursday, which will determine the district’s course of action the following week. If the county is red, the district will halt in-person learning for the following Monday through Friday. The district will check back on Thursday, Nov. 12 and determine based on the county’s color what to do the next week. If it is orange, yellow or green on Nov. 12, in-person students will be able to return to school beginning Nov. 16.

According to the statement, details on food service are forthcoming, and if parents have questions, they can contact their child’s principal.

Danville Independent Schools

According to a Facebook post on the district’s Facebook page that featured a letter from Superintendent Tammy McDonald, the district currently has no active positive student or staff cases of COVID-19, and there have not been any instances of positive cases traced back to being a result of being in any of the district’s school buildings. The district has been operating under a hybrid A/B model since Oct. 12 with no spread of the disease in the schools, according to the letter.

The current setup of classrooms allows for social distancing and, under the COVID-19 Mode of Instruction Metrics for K-12 Education, schools in a red zone county can bring small groups of students into the building at their discretion, the statement reads, so the district and the Boyle County Health Department have together decided that due to lack of spread and the implementation of the hybrid A/B model, which only allows certain numbers of students to come to the schools each day, the district has determined it can continue to safely offer in-person learning at this time, according to the letter.

The letter also announced that the district will be able to provide transportation for all schools starting Nov. 9 following social distancing guidelines and other safety guidelines, with potential changes in bus numbers, bus drivers and pickup times. If parents have questions, they can ask schools or the Central Office.