BOISE — Boise students will be learning remotely for at least the first two weeks of school. The district previously announced its decision to offer two separate schooling choices — an online school option and a virtual school option, which collaborates with their in-person schools.
"To provide people an opportunity to be able to have a virtual experience class when it wasn't deemed safe enough to have in person in-person," said superintendent Coby Dennis.
"At the same time, there are going to be families, who no matter how long this plays out, won't feel safe bringing their kids back, so we wanted to provide both of those options for our families."
In a board meeting Tuesday, Boise School District trustees unanimously decided it's not safe to bring students back to the classroom yet.
"I will support the motion, but I don't want to minimize the impact it
s decision has on single-parent families, parents who both work and can't work from home and particularly the marginalized members in our community
This means parents will have some added responsibility for educating their kids.
"We're actually going to be sharing with our parents what the expectations are for elementary and secondary so they can understand that and see what they'll be in charge of versus what the teachers will be in charge of, but we will be doing a lot of reaching out."
The district is still working out the fine details. Trustee Beth Oppenheimer, raising a question on how the district plans to communicate with parents.
Parents should expect communication from the district level and their individual teachers, so if they're in K-6, they would expect an email or communication from their home teacher, and in junior high or high school, who would they expect to get communication from?" said Oppenheimer.
Families in the Boise School District have until noon Friday to enroll in the online school.
West Ada also held a meeting in which board members voted to delay school starting until September 8. Also discussed at the board meeting was the policy regarding schools of choice. Idaho News Six's Jessica Taylor will have more on how their decision will protect spots for students at schools of choice later this week.
