Knox County Schools plans to continue extracurriculars but further limit capacity
Middle and high school athletic games and practices will have a limit on capacity after the TSSAA released new guidelines Monday regarding who will be permitted to attend games.
The guidelines come a day after Gov. Bill Lee signed Executive Order No. 70, which came in response to the surge of COVID-19 infections across the state. And it comes a few days after Knox County Schools announced new athletic procedures for middle and high schools.
Here is who will be allowed to attend high school practices or games:
- Players' parents or guardians and immediate household members
- First responders
- Coaching and team personnel
- School, game and facility administrators
- Athletics officials
- Media and athletic scouting personnel attending the event in their professional capacity
On Friday, Knox County Schools announced it planned to further limit crowd capacity at indoor extracurricular events next semester. The district's amended guidelines would have allowed each student athlete to receive two tickets and for the sale of an additional 50 tickets, preferably for students.
No student spectators will be allowed at high school athletic games under the TSSAA's new guidelines. Cheerleaders or dance teams won't be allowed to attend either.
All KCS extracurriculars including sports are canceled this week because of the district-wide closure. But the district's director of health services, Lisa Wagoner, recently said the district has seen clusters from indoor activities.
"We've had a few clusters for basketball and football and dance team and all kinds, so we have a few going on right now," Wagoner said. She said Wednesday during a board of health meeting that the extracurricular activities, especially indoor activities, have an effect on the number of cases.
Superintendent Bob Thomas recently said at a livestreamed Q&A that he wants students to have extracurricular experiences.
The board of health approved a resolution Wednesday urging the district to limit these activities. But it is up to the schools to make rules about extracurriculars.
"To reduce the opportunity for the spread of COVID-19 the Knox County Board of Education is encouraged to limit extracurricular activities for the spring of 2021 school sessions," the resolution reads. "If extracurricular activities continue, enact appropriate safety precautions."
The district also has rules about masks, social distancing and prepackaged foods for concession sales.
As of Friday, the district intended to continue sports and extracurriculars unless there are "extenuating circumstances," according to an email sent by Thomas to families. But Harrington said Monday the district will review any new guidelines that might be issued.
"We will be continuously reviewing our athletics and extracurricular activities at each school and take into consideration our district and community metrics," district spokeswoman Carly Harrington said in an email to Knox News prior to the TSSAA guidelines being released.. "We will also consider any guidance we may receive from the Knox County Health Department, state of Tennessee and TSSAA."
Harrington said one example of this is that middle school basketball games were postponed effective Dec. 10, before the district-wide closure went into effect, because of various factors "including the fact there were more cancellations than games played due to COVID-related reasons."
The governor addressed the state Sunday, announcing public gathering restrictions, but he specifically said he would like high school sports to continue.
"I believe high school sports are an important part of our kids' lives, and they should continue," Lee said during a public address Sunday evening. "But in coordination with the TSSAA, we are limiting attendance in indoor sporting events."
Everyone attending must practice social distancing of 6 feet of separation from people not in their household, according to the executive order.
There are 85 active student COVID-19 cases and 92 active staff COVID-19 cases as of Friday, according to the district's COVID-19 dashboard. There are 1,652 people in isolation or quarantine. The district will not update its dashboard during winter break.
The district reported its highest number of active cases on Dec. 10, the day after it announced its district-wide closure. But it has seen a decrease in active cases since then.
Meanwhile, the county reported its highest number of active cases Monday. After several days of decreasing numbers of hospitalizations, those numbers increased to 146. That is tied for the highest number of people who have been hospitalized during the entire pandemic.
At the board of health meeting last week, Knox County Health Department Director Dr. Martha Buchanan said the community needs to decide what the priority is – is it educating children and having the greatest amount of children in in-person learning (and not in quarantine) as possible or is it providing education, sports and other experiences?
County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said these sporting events are important, especially because some students need to play to receive college scholarships.
"When we look at schools, spread in the classroom has gone up recently, but just as spread in the community has gone up," Buchanan said during the board of health meeting.
"Especially with indoor sports, we know that the more people gather, the more opportunity there is to spread COVID."