Boise ends waiting game, closes schools for the year. But it’s trying to save graduation.
The Boise School District has called it. All of its schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year.
The district’s school board unanimously approved the decision Thursday during a virtual board meeting. The district will continue online education and will distribute meals during the coronavirus pandemic, but all school buildings will remain closed.
“Given how (Ada County has) the most cases in the state of Idaho, and everything that we have seen as far as the peak puts us into May — which would only leave a couple weeks of our school year anyway — we feel it’s appropriate for our board to let families know so they can start planning for the future,” Boise School District Superintendent Coby Dennis said during the meeting.
The school board also approved plans Thursday to delay in-person graduations until late July, if possible. And the closure ends all spring sports in the Boise School District.
Boise’s decision follows Monday’s confusing order from the State Board of Education. The State Board ordered all public schools closed for the rest of the year, unless schools can meet certain criteria to reopen. But it did not set that criteria, planning to set it at its next meeting Monday. That led districts around the state to pause waiting for final instruction.
Boise and the Blaine County School District, home to Idaho’s original epicenter of the coronavirus, didn’t need any more instruction, opting to officially close their doors this week.
GRADUATIONS PLANNED FOR JULY
From the day they were issued, Idaho’s stay-home order and federal social distancing guidelines threw graduation ceremonies for high school seniors into danger. Boise’s district attempted to ease those concerns Thursday.
The district will host virtual graduation ceremonies in May, but it also voted unanimously Thursday to postpone in-person graduations until the week of July 20 in an attempt to save them.
Lisa Roberts, Boise’s deputy superintendent, said the district will continue to work with Boise State to have those graduations at ExtraMile Arena. Limited available dates at the arena could force the district to host back-to-back graduations on the same day, she said.
“The graduation probably will not look the same because we won’t have time for the usual practices,” Roberts said. “But we still would have speeches, most likely, and still have them walk across the stage.
“Hopefully gathering limits would be lifted. If they weren’t completely lifted and they were, say, 250 (people or less), we would work around that with how kids could walk across the stage and not break those guidelines.”
Roberts said the district is also considering other venues for graduation if Boise State can’t host or strict social distancing guidelines remain in place. The district’s plan requires it to meet any guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a week before the new graduation date.
“Come August, people are going to school. Our school system starts up. They are off to college,” board president Nancy Gregory said. “We pushed it back as far as we could. This is all emergency management.”
Dennis said high school seniors are one of the hardest-hit groups during the coronavirus school closures. He relayed a message the district received from a student that said when students left class on Friday, March 20, they had no idea it would be their last day of school.
“Our intent is to try and provide some hope for our seniors,” Dennis said, “as well as provide that experience for families as best we can.”
BOISE RAMPS UP ONLINE CLASSES MONDAY
Boise Schools started offering online material for students March 30. After two weeks of testing and planning, it will up the ante Monday.
The district will provide grade-level lessons for specific courses the rest of the year. Each day of the week will have a focus. For example, Mondays are for English, Tuesdays for math, etc.
Previously, the district posted generic activities for high school, junior high and elementary students.
Assignments will not count against students’ grades. Assignments can only boost their grades, similar to extra credit.
“It’s about feedback and learning, not about grades,” district spokesman Dan Hollar said.
Boise started distributing Chromebook laptops Wednesday, giving out 5,500 to students in need of a home computer. It will continue distributing laptops throughout the week.
It also has plans to issue 500 hotspots to families. All Boise School District buildings will serve as wireless hotspots. And the district will provide printed materials to anyone who needs them.
“This is not a replication of the public school system online,” Hollar said. “But we are giving students an opportunity for enrichment.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 10:31 AM.
