‘Substantial spread’: Idaho charter school to close for a week due to COVID-19
A charter school in Idaho is shutting down temporarily due to COVID-19 just weeks after reopening.
Compass Public Charter School’s administration in a letter to families said it would be temporarily pausing instruction and extracurricular activities for a week starting Tuesday. During that time, the school, located in Meridian, will be deep cleaned and students should monitor for symptoms.
The closure comes just about two weeks after the school, which had about 1,200 K-12 students last year, welcomed students back for the first day of the new school year.
“Unfortunately, we have had a lot of students attending school who either have symptoms of illness or have family members at home who have COVID symptoms,” the letter said. “This has resulted in a substantial spread within our Compass community which according to our Safe Return to School Plan requires us to implement additional mitigation measures.”
During the closure, which will run through Sept. 6, students won’t have any Zoom meetings or “scheduled periods of learning between teachers and students,” the charter’s administration said in the letter.
Instead, the school said elementary students would be getting an email from their homeroom teacher about learning and secondary students would be expected to get their assignments through Schoology.
When students and staff return, they will be encouraged to wear masks in the classroom. Staff members also will be conducting health screenings at the entrances when students come to school.
The Compass administration asked that parents also go through their own health screenings with their kids before sending them to school, looking for symptoms including sore throat, runny nose and headache.
“After this temporary instructional pause, we are hopeful these additional mitigation measures will allow us to resume in-person instruction moving forward as we know this is what is best for kids,” the school said.
As COVID-19 cases surge across Idaho, school districts in the Treasure Valley in recent weeks have been discussing what safety protocols to put into place to keep students safe and ensure schools can stay open, in person, all year long.
Debates over mask mandates have intensified in recent weeks, with some parents saying it should be their choice whether their child wears a mask and others arguing masks will help keep students and staff safe.
The Boise School District earlier this month passed a mask mandate for its students and staff. Since opening about two weeks ago, the district has reported nearly 100 positive cases of the virus, according to the district’s tracker. Hundreds more have had to quarantine.
The West Ada School District last week passed a mask mandate — less than 36 hours before the first day of school — but gave parents the option to opt their students out. About one-third of students in the district were excused from the mask mandate as of Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 4:47 PM.
