It’s still not safe to fully reopen schools in Ada County, health district says
Coronavirus cases in Ada County continue to decline. But Central District Health is not yet ready to clear schools to fully reopen for in-person classes.
The local health district kept all three Ada County public school districts — Boise, West Ada and Kuna — in the red category of community spread Monday. That is the highest category in Idaho’s back-to-school guidelines and comes with a recommendation to move all learning online.
Central District Health hinted last week that Ada County COVID-19 statistics have improved and it could soon drop school districts into the yellow category, which could clear the way for students to return to classrooms.
But soon wasn’t Monday.
Central District Health updates its recommendations and color-based categories once a week. It will release its next guidance on Tuesday, Sept. 8, due to the Labor Day holiday.
The number of new COVID-19 cases is falling in Ada County. The state’s most populated county averaged 61.1 new confirmed cases per day in the past week, down from 82.7 the previous week and 137 two weeks ago.
But Central District Health’s recommendations are not based solely on case counts. It also considers factors like the ability to determine where someone was exposed to the virus, health care staffing and outbreaks in communal settings like schools, health care facilities and mass gatherings.
Brandon Atkins, a spokesman for the health district, said the virus’ impact on Ada County’s health care staffing is not currently significant. But he said it remained in red because outbreaks have merged to become indistinct from one another and because of multiple cases in communal settings.
West Ada, Idaho’s largest school district, will start the school year online Sept. 8 for at least one week. Its school board made a decision only for the first week and planned to wait for additional guidance from Central District Health before meeting again Tuesday.
Boise, the state’s second largest school district, has already started the school year online. It planned to remain online until at least Sept. 14. But it has said multiple times it will need two weeks to prepare for in-person learning. So Monday’s classification from the health district pushes in-person learning back to Sept. 21, at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Kuna brought students back to its campuses Monday against Central District Health recommendations. It has split its students into two groups to create more physical distancing in classrooms. Half attend in-person classes Monday and Wednesday, the other half on Tuesday and Thursday. All students are online on Friday.
Central District Health only makes recommendations to local schools under Idaho’s back-to-school guidelines. Local school boards must decide what to do with those recommendations and how much, or how little, to follow.
Central District Health kept all schools in Boise, Elmore and Valley counties in the yellow category Monday.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
