In high-spread areas in Idaho, keep schools closed, start the fall semester online-only

Shutting down schools this fall may seem like a tremendous imposition, but Idaho needs to play the long game here.

School board members all over the state are making the hard decision on whether to bring students back into the classroom, recognizing on the one hand the need to educate students and provide for their mental well-being, and balancing that with the need to protect public health and prevent further spread of COVID-19.

Keeping children home right now in high-spread areas is the safest choice.

What may seem like an insurmountable and unreasonable ask today will one day be recognized as a wise and necessary step during extraordinary times.

Some schools are pushing to open now, with the possibility of going online later in the fall. It’s almost as if we are expecting a disaster.

We believe it should be the other way around: Open online now, while we’re in the middle of community spread, and then bring students back later once conditions improve.

“First, I want to make the point that this infection is rampantly spreading, and some of our communities now, I think you’re all aware that Canyon is top of the county list followed by Owyhee, then Minidoka, then Ada,” Dr. Jim Souza, chief medical officer for St. Luke’s, told West Ada school board members Tuesday evening. “Our positivity rates are up from single digits to double digits in testing. Idaho and these counties in particular have hit the national map, and people are largely now acquiring this in the community, largely, I believe, in their backyard events and in nonsafe work places. … The second point I’d like to make is, it’s a big deal.”

School districts in the Treasure Valley — as well as districts in other high-spread areas — should focus 100% of their attention on how to best structure distance learning and online education options.

The challenges and difficulties of providing education all online will pale in comparison to the challenges and difficulties of dealing with an outbreak if students return to school in person.

Trying to figure out distancing, requiring masks, fighting with parents who don’t believe in mask use, establishing a testing protocol, balancing schedules and coming up with game plans if there is an outbreak are all hoops that would need to be jumped through to pull off school in person. Any little outbreak could undo all of that work and, quite bluntly, could lead to unnecessary deaths.

We’ve seen even from Major League Baseball that people can set the best intentions, but it takes one sick person making others sick to throw everything off again.

Boise State University is saying it is going to have to drop the requirement for everyone to be tested before they can move into the dorms because we don’t even have enough tests available for people to pull that off. If we’re running out of tests before school even starts, without a plan for the state to obtain more, how will we test teachers and students who fall ill?

Dr. Ted Epperly raised that specter during a Central District Health board meeting Tuesday, pointing out that fall and winter are part of the regular flu and cold season, when students and teachers show symptoms of fever, chills, coughing and runny noses. Without adequate — and speedy — testing, how will we be able to tell whether it’s actually COVID-19?

“It’s going to put a massive overload on the system,” Epperly said. “If all the schools are sending all the kids with symptoms during a viral season to their local providers, it’s going to overwhelm the system. We’re already overwhelmed on testing right now.”

In a way, we’ve made our bed; now we have to lie in it.

After Gov. Brad Little lifted the statewide stay-home order and quickly moved Idaho through a series of reopening stages, many people returned to life as normal, heading to bars and restaurants, hosting social gatherings, returning to stores and other public places. Many Idahoans refused — and still refuse — to wear masks in public or take other proper precautions.

Consequently, we’ve seen a resurgence in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

According to the Harvard Global Health Institute, which calculates an average of new cases over a rolling seven-day period, Canyon County has 52.2 new cases per 100,000 population. Harvard Global Health Institute considers anything over 25 new cases as beyond a tipping point, requiring a return to stay-at-home orders. Ada County is at 35.1 new cases.

The good news is that those numbers are dropping. But they are still way too high, and if we send kids back to school in just a couple of weeks, it’s almost certain we will see another spike.

It would be a tremendous challenge to reopen schools only to shut them down again in a couple of weeks when we see an outbreak. Determining whether to close just one school building, while siblings might be in another building, and trying to do contact tracing in the event of a case or an outbreak also would be challenging. However disappointing it might be, having a clear, known plan to go all online at least gives students, parents and teachers reliable certainty and expectations moving forward. Opening schools on shaky grounds, knowing that plans could change any minute, creates uncertainty.

We recognize the hardship that this may cause for some families, and we would support school districts’ efforts to set up a limited in-person system to accommodate students with special needs or students without reliable internet access at home.

Kuna school superintendent Wendy Johnson told the editorial board a poignant story of a student who died of neglect while schools were shut down in the spring. She said she believes the student would otherwise be alive had the student been in school.

“We’re trying to balance that health need with that social-emotional need and care for children,” Johnson said.

That sentiment is backed up by a report published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association encouraging schools to reopen, particularly for K-5 students, recognizing the need to balance the public health risks of opening against the educational and other risks of keeping buildings closed.

“As school districts weigh these risks, the committee recommended that the school districts make every effort to prioritize reopening with an emphasis on providing in-person instruction for students in kindergarten-grade 5 as well as those students with special needs who might be best served by in-person instruction,” according to the report.

We sympathize with that position, but we remain concerned a mass reopening puts many more people in danger than not reopening does.

On Thursday, the Idaho Statesman reported that the White House coronavirus task force is calling for a significant increase in restrictions and other actions to control Idaho’s coronavirus outbreak. The document classifies Idaho and the Boise area in the task force’s “red zone,” recommending mask mandates, a social gathering limit of 10 people, bar and gym closures, and improved access to testing.

We recognize that this isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. As we’ve said before, what’s right for Boise may not be right for Shelley. We’re concerned about the political will — and pressure — local health boards have in making the tough decision to put school districts in Category 2 or Category 3, based on the state’s school reopening metrics. Category 2 (minimal to moderate community transmission) allows school buildings to open with the option of staggered schedules to allow for physical distancing and sanitation. Category 3 (substantial community transmission) directs targeted, short-term or extended building closures. The metrics for determining categories appear to be open to interpretation. Out of an abundance of caution, we support board members who determine a school district is in Category 3.

Finally, we agree with many who have pointed out that the pandemic has laid bare the inadequacies of state education funding. From teachers to parents to administrators, we have heard the complaint that Idaho is already 51st in the nation in per-pupil funding, and the governor ordered a 5%, or $99 million, cut to the public education budget for fiscal year 2020-21, on top of previous cuts.

If we were to successfully pull off hybrid teaching models, reduce class sizes and practice health protocols, we would need more teachers, more school nurses, more masks and other safety equipment. Old school buildings are woefully inadequate to provide ventilation, and some classrooms lack even windows for air flow.

If anything, this should be a wake-up call that decisions to underfund schools are now coming home to roost.

In the meantime, for the safety of students, teachers, staff and the entire community, the best bet is to go all online and keep schools closed for now.

If and when we’re able to reduce community spread and provide adequate resources to schools, then we can consider their safe and orderly reopening.

This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 11:39 AM.