Mayor and City Council put discussion of Aug. 26 school reopening on Monday agenda, invite public comment

By Aaron Gershon
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Midway City Council and Mayor Grayson Vandegrift will discuss the status of re-opening schools amid the covid-19 pandemic during their twice-monthly meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Anyone wanting to share their thoughts on school reopenings will be able to comment on the online meeting’s Facebook Live stream on the Midway Government Streaming Meetings Facebook page.

“I hope Midway citizens will join the discussion via Facebook,” Vandegrift told the Messenger. “I’ll share my thoughts and ask the council members if they would like to weigh in as well. And all of this in the hope of helping the [school] board, not in any way stepping on their toes.”

The mayor noted that the Woodford County Board of Education is planning a dual option, in which parents can either opt to send kids to school or have them do virtual learning, online at home. School is scheduled to start Aug. 26.

 

“A couple of board members recently expressed concern about sending kids back to school,” Vandegrift said, especially with the rise in cases the last several weeks and a survey that showed many teachers are leery about returning to in-person instruction.”

The school board scheduled a special meeting for Monday night, but that has been postponed to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11.

While the council normally does not involve itself in school-board decisions, the mayor said he hopes the conversation will give an idea of where people in Midway stand on school re-opening.

“My goal is simply to be able to give the school board and idea of how Midway and this end of the county are thinking about this, hopefully, to help inform their decision making,” he said.