Butler County Schools: District preps for new school year

Thu, 07/29/2021 - 9:12am — Diane Dyer

Overcoming Challenges to Innovate for Our Future

The Pandemic Portal we entered into roughly a year and half ago created a different reality of life for each and every one of us. This has been a difficult and frustrating time for our families and community. My thoughts and prayers continue to be with everyone. As we continue to navigate out of this portal into what many are calling a “new normal”, the Butler County School Team continues to take extraordinary steps to prepare our schools for the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Our primary goal is to provide quality instruction to our students in a safe and welcoming environment. This pandemic has taught us many new things that have allowed us to perfect our craft to better serve and support our students. Through the lessons we have learned and the information we gathered from the pandemic, our team has prepared facilities, updated and amended policies and procedures, and altered educational and operational practices to make absolutely certain our schools will operate in the safest and most productive environment possible.

As we navigated through this Pandemic Portal, we stayed the course, adjusting and adapting to circumstances that a lot of time were out-of-our-control. However, we focused on the things we could control and that allowed us to gain momentum to move our district forward during this pandemic. We were better in the fall of 2020 from the spring of 2020, and we were better in the spring of 2021 than we were in the fall of 2020. Ultimately, we kept the needs and supports for our students as our common ground and focus. We learned a great deal and implemented fantastic practices which we will take with us as we continue to adjust back to the “new normal”. In the end, we could not have done these tremendous things without each other. When the going gets tough, it is the tough teams that get going, and Butler County comes together during tough times. That is something that Butler County can be proud of. This is what makes me so proud to say I am the Superintendent of Butler County Schools!

We are fully prepared and have been looking forward to going back to a five-day-a -week student schedule with enthusiasm and resolve. We know and understand that we are not completely out of the woods with the pandemic. We will still have to understand that this year might yet call for some adjusting and adapting as everyone awaits to see the impact of the Delta strain of the virus. Again, the safety and well-being of our students and staff is number one to our school district. We continue to follow the CDC and “Healthy-to-School Guidelines”. Currently, the guidance recommendations are left up to local control and local decision making. Therefore, Butler County Schools are going to encourage those who are not vaccinated to wear a mask, but mask wearing will not be mandatory. Anyone else who chooses to wear a mask is more than welcome to do so. As the CDC, Kentucky Department of Public Health, Barren River District Health Department, and the Governor’s office present further guidance, we will re-evaluate our Return-to-School Guidance which may include further mitigation efforts. This may include, but is not limited to, increased wearing of masks, temperature checks, increased social distancing, and other mitigation strategies as directed by the above agencies. Butler County School System’s full return-to-school plan can be found on the district website, www.butlerschools.net.

We live in a time now, more than any time before, where thinking innovatively has become a necessity of life. It has been my goal from the beginning of dealing with this pandemic to plan for the worst, hope for the best, and adjust and adapt when needed. We will continue to think innovatively and examine all situations holistically. We have worked together as a community to strengthen relationships and develop a joint problem-solving approach to these new challenges that centers around helping our students become independent, lifelong learners. We have achieved this through open dialogue, collecting data, and examining that data, along with improving and perfecting our practices and procedures. We have and will continue to build capacity and clarity in instructional practices during these changing times. This will include training, sharing data, monitoring our mission, vision, values, and making adjustments, when necessary, due to bumps in the road. We have tried to focus our attention on only those areas that we can control to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. This has promoted a transparent mindset of growth and support across our district.

When I think of the Butler County community, I think of pride, perseverance, a blue-collar work ethic, and an overall toughness. This is why our team came up with a well-rounded and flexible plan that will allow us to adjust and adapt to this complex situation while also focusing on those variables we can control to provide the best support our students deserve. We have a great community and I take extensive pride in knowing that. I am proud to live in this community with my family and to watch our community grow and progress toward the future. As we continue to work together, we will build our community by becoming One Team, with One Vision, that will make us Butler Strong.

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Butler County Schools: District preps for new school year

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