Will Knox County Schools’ fall semester be full of face masks, social distancing and temperature checks? We don’t know yet, but the survey results will help.
KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — The survey results are in.
Thirty thousand people took the Knox County Schools reo-pening survey online.
That many people yields a lot of survey results, compiled by KCS into a 154 page document.
KCS broke down all this data by parent, teacher, student, and admin responses, and by zip code.
About 82% of respondents were parents.
About half of survey takers want school to go back on campus and be as normal as possible.
Thirty-six percent are up for a half in person, half online school year, while the remaining 13 percent minority wants all online.
When it comes to what would make people feel more comfortable in a school, the top three answers were
- Consensus among the medical community it’s safe
- A decrease in active coronavirus cases in Knox county
- If a proven virus treatment becomes available
Across the board no one wants a longer school day or longer school year to make up for lost time.
When it comes to safety measures, 85% of people want regular disinfection of common areas.
Half the students who responded want staff to wear face masks and want temperature checks for everyone each day.
Teachers are doing online training, but about 90% said they’re concerned students won’t be held accountable for attending online classes should a shift to online learning happen.
Sixty-two percent of students admit this, too.
“The way our students, our teachers, our principals and our parents feel weighs in heavily on my mind in terms of the recommendation that we make,” said KCS Superintendent Bob Thomas.
A community task force is going through this data now.
The group of parents, volunteers and business leaders that make up the task force was chosen by the Knox County Board of Education.
RELATED: Knox Co. Schools leaning on focus groups, task force to decide what fall 2020 will look like
Teachers voiced their concern they were left off the panel, but a teacher focus group met with the superintendent this week, who said he’s trying to get as much input as possible.
“We provided no instructions to board members to chose any one type of a person, just somebody from their community that would represent the views of their community,” said Thomas.
He will continue meeting with focus groups this week.
Thomas have his recommendation for the school year to the board of education on July 15.
