OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Blue Valley students and parents rallied outside district’s board meeting Tuesday night, hoping to encourage leaders to allow fall sports.
By the end of the board meeting, they didn’t get many answers.
“How many times have you heard kids say we want to go to school? Let them go to school. Let them play,” Blue Valley teacher and parent Sharon Madagan said.
Madagan led chants of “Let them play” outside Blue Valley Northwest High School. She said her passion stems from her son, a senior and competitive wrestler whose future is up in the air.
”Other states are wrestling. My son deserves that opportunity,” Madagan said.
Dozens of student athletes also expressed the same sentiment.
“Obviously, normal really isn’t going to happen, but everyone wants to have some form of a season, whatever that may be,” senior Grace Power said.
“This is important to me, definitely for my teammates who are seniors. This is the last year they have,” junior Dasan MCcullough said.
The Blue Valley school board voted Tuesday night to rescind a previous decision to follow Johnson County’s gating criteria. That would have meant, for now, elementary students attend in-person and older students work remotely. All extracurricular activities would have also been remote.
The district will now take the next few days to form its own gating criteria, looking to the Kansas Board of Education’s guidelines but considering local data. The board formed a committee to create a proposal.
Board members did not make an official decision on fall sports, but they did say teams will be allowed to continue practicing while they figure out a plan.
So for now, Blue Valley students, parents and teachers will wait.
