One Idaho school will reopen Monday. Here’s how it plans to keep students safe.
While schools around Idaho remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, one Treasure Valley school will reopen its doors Monday.
Nampa Christian will resume in-person classes for the final three weeks of the school year, the school’s superintendent told the Idaho Statesman on Friday. Its plan comes with approval from Southwest District Health.
Superintendent Greg Wiles said the private school recently surveyed its parents, and a majority wanted to return to in-person classes. He declined to give an exact number but said it was between 60 and 80 percent.
Wiles added any students or teachers who don’t feel safe returning to campus can continue online or distance learning.
“The path of least resistance was just to stay with the distance learning,” Wiles said. “But with the majority of our parents … saying they want to have the end of the school year face to face, we wanted to entertain that and accommodate that.
“So we’re delivering both. It really is a win-win for both sides.”
Gov. Brad Little’s stay-home order ended Thursday, replaced by a new order that lightens restrictions but still requires social distancing.
That end of the stay-home order allowed Nampa Christian to reopen for its 730 students from preschool to high school, if it could meet a host of criteria. Here’s how it plans to do that.
SHORTENED, STAGGERED SCHEDULES
Nampa Christian will move to a four-day school week, giving students 12 days back on campus. Those days shrank from eight hours to five at the elementary campus. Middle and high school students will have five-and-a-half-hour days on their campus.
Nampa Christian will also stagger its schedules and shorten the passing time between periods to ensure students don’t flood the hallways or pickup zones all at once.
That includes having a class of middle and high school students wait in the hall — all 6 feet apart — for another class to exit that room.
“We are going to be directing a lot of traffic,” Wiles said. “I feel like we’re going to be at Disneyland here a bit, controlling the lines. But that’s what they are doing at all the stores right now.”
MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING
Little’s new order still requires a mandatory 6 feet between individuals “whenever possible.” But Wiles believes Nampa Christian can meet that.
The school averages 20 students per class. If 20 to 40 percent of students stay home, that would create enough space to spread students out in a classroom, he said.
Keeping students 6 feet apart might prove the toughest challenge. But Wiles said the school will instruct students on expectations and enforce those expectations regularly.
“If you go to Walmart, you go to Home Depot, you go to Lowe’s, everyone is kind of self-regulating themselves right now,” Wiles said. “That’s what we’re going to try to convey to our students — how important that is.”
MORE SANITATION
The school installed hand sanitizer in every room, and all students must apply it before entering.
Wiles said custodians will continually sanitize desks, lockers and bathrooms, committing to sanitizing each desk twice a day. Custodians will then conduct a deep clean overnight.
The school will provide students with a mask if they don’t have one. They are encouraged, but not required, to wear them, Wiles said.
PREVENT CROWDS
Nampa Christian will not hold its weekly assemblies or chapel services. It will not provide buses. And it will keep cafeterias closed, requiring students to eat in their classrooms.
It has also postponed events, planning for a prom in late June and a graduation July 10.
“We want to try to give them the real thing,” Wiles said.
CANYON COUNTY HIT BY CORONAVIRUS
Nampa Christian has an elementary and middle/high school campus in Canyon County, one of the hardest hit areas in Idaho. The county had 244 confirmed coronavirus cases and seven deaths through Friday.
The county also has confirmed community transmission, which requires a higher threshold to reopen schools under guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those guidelines include intensified cleaning and multiple social distancing strategies for classrooms and moving through the building.
Wiles believes Nampa Christian has met those guidelines, and its local health district agrees.
“Nampa Christian School has reviewed and updated policies and procedures and developed mitigation strategies to address the level of local community spread of COVID-19, including intensified cleaning and disinfecting protocols, identification of feasible social distancing strategies, updated policies for illnesses and absenteeism, plans for short-term dismissal plans for positive COVID-19 cases, and identified ways to accommodate needs of children and families at risk for serious illness from COVID-19 cases,” a signed letter from Nikole Zogg, the director of Southwest District Health, reads.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 5:44 PM.
