Will Boise Schools open in person or move fully online? It will make a decision soon.
The Boise School District unveiled plans to open for in-person classes five days a week in June. But it’s reevaluating that plan as the coronavirus continues to surge through the city and Ada County.
Boise will now decide Aug. 3 — two weeks before the first day of school — if it will continue to offer in-person classes or move fully online.
The Boise School Board announced the decision Thursday after an hour of testimony from local health care leaders. It will form a committee to weigh the latest information and work with Central District Health. The public can provide input during the Aug. 3 meeting.
“We’re all going to move forward to make the best decision for our community and our students,” Board President Nancy Gregory said in a brief remark following a 90-minute executive session.
Gina Pannell, the school liaison for Central District Health, testified before the school board Thursday along with leaders from St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus hospitals. Pannell said Boise would currently fall into Category 3 of community spread in Idaho’s back-to-school plan. That would come with a recommendation to close school buildings.
But she cautioned schools aren’t trying to open now, a lot can change in a few weeks and the state and local health departments are still finalizing the criteria used for community spread in the back-to-school plan released two weeks ago.
“If you were going to ask me if we were going to start school Monday, ... we would be in Category 3 right now,” Pannell said. “We would be very concerned putting 75,000 students back in school. … But we don’t want to make that formal recommendation at this time.”
Boise has approximately 25,000 students. West Ada has 40,000 and Kuna 5,000.
Boise’s current plan offers parents a choice to send their children to in-person classes five days a week or to enroll in an online school the district built. The online school will largely follow the curriculum taught in traditional schools.
Parents can sign up for the online school through a form on the district’s website until July 31. After that, they can enroll in the online school by contacting their traditional school.
Ada County had 795 confirmed coronavirus cases June 10 when Boise first unveiled its back-to-school plan. It had 6,066 confirmed cases Wednesday evening, more than seven times as many.
Cases among children in the Treasure Valley have been increasing since the week of June 21, according to Primary Health Medical Group. Since June 1 at Primary Health clinics, the positivity rate for children 12 to 17 years old has been 11.7%. It’s nearly 9% for children younger than 12.
Pannell noted the public has a large role to play in reopening schools. If everyone committed to wearing masks in public, washing their hands and maintaining social distance, Ada County might turn the tide against the coronavirus in time to open schools, she said.
She noted no one wants schools closed for long periods of time, adding she’s the mother of two elementary students in Boise.
“Schools opening and staying open is heavily reliant on the community doing what they need to do for their neighbors, for their family, for their friends,” she said. “It is in direct relationship to whether or not you will open schools.
“And if people don’t show up and don’t practice those public health measures, then we could be in Category 3 for a long time. And nobody wants that because it’s going to start impacting the economy and businesses, etc.
“… I’m hoping that with schools in question at this point that it turns on some light bulbs and maybe increases people’s willingness to do this, again, for my friends and neighbors.”
Mark Nassir, the president of Saint Alphonsus, and Kenny Bramwell, the medical director for St. Luke’s children’s hospital, said the recent COVID-19 spike has overwhelmed their hospitals’ testing capacities. Those hospitals have pulled back from plans to test patients without symptoms to clear them to return to work or school.
They also stressed their desire for schools to reopen and pleaded with the public to follow health guidelines.
“What I often tell friends and families, your house is a safe zone and everyone outside the house is a zombie,” Bramwell said. “If you’re close to a zombie for 15 minutes, that’s a problem.”
The state teacher’s union also called on schools to reevaluate their plans to reopen Thursday amid the increasing number of cases, record-high positive test rates and dwindling hospital resources.
“It is time for a reality check on reopening school buildings in Idaho,” Idaho Education Association President Layne McInelly said in a statement. “With skyrocketing increases in COVID-19 cases, the future seems to be dictated by the virus. Parents will not send their kids into school buildings that are not safe. Educators will not be willing to risk their lives or the lives of their families. Schools will not be able to remain open.
“If federal, state and local officials are unwilling or unable to provide the resources and support to ensure that our schools can open safely, they should tap the brakes on reopening school buildings until circumstances have changed for the better.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 1:43 PM.
