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Friday, March 29, 2024

Making the Grade: Reopening Idaho schools and budget cuts

Credit: Idaho On Your Side
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Making the Grade: Reopening Idaho schools and budget cuts
Making the Grade: Reopening Idaho schools and budget cuts

Michelle Edmonds and Kevin Richert of Idaho Ed News discuss the state's plan for reopening schools as well as budget cuts and more.

Hi, everybody welcome to makingthe grade on this Tuesday afterMemorial Day, I'm MichelleEvans with Idaho News six.

Weare live on Facebook right nowto bring you the very latest ineducation news and joining meas he always does sofaithfully.

Kevin Richard fromIdaho Education News, Idaho atNews dot ORG.

You guys arecontinuing Kevin to post amassive amount of workconsidering the situation well,There's just a thank you, butthere's just a massive amountof news happening.

So we'rejust we're trying to stay ontop of it.

Best we can it'sokay so schools are windingdown K through 12 and also theUniversity systems for theunprecedented school year thatwe've had Let's look ahead toschools in the fall so first ofall Governor Brad Little duringan AARP conference last weekstart to talk a little tiny bitabout what he would see asexpectations for K through 12.So let's talk a little bitabout that.

And then I alsoknow that you're working on astory.

What happens at Boisestayed in the fall so first andforemost, I think one questionparents have as I'm a West AidaSchool district parent, and Iknow that I've already beensurveyed about my next fall forthe kids, but what does schoollook like for fall?

Will ourkids be tested for Corona virusbefore they head back the shortanswer that we heard from thegovernor last week is nothere's not gonna be Masstesting of every student thatcomes into the public schoolsystem and we're at 300000students so so that's not.

Tohappenyou know how muchtesting may take place how doyou try to target that kind oftesting?

And that's part of abigger question that the stateis trying to figure out.

I meanjust on Friday and thegovernor's office and statehealth officials laid out theirplans to try to ramp uptesting.

We know Idaho has hada has struggled to try to getmore testing in place foradults and for kids, this is auniversal issue in the stateIdaho testing out near thebottomSo probably not surprising thatthe governor is saying no,we're not gonna be able to testevery kid.

He was saying thoughthat they are working closelywith the State Department ofEducation to try and come upwith some guidelines fordistricts correct because therehas to be even though eachschool district is obviouslyvery different in a state likeours, how many kids they dealwith how many people are insidetheir buildings?

How manybuildings they have, you knowsome are very rural schools,and we may have one or twobuildings that they're dealingwith, but are they going to be?Kind of state guidelines forthe districts about what toexpect.

I think what you'regonna see now in the next fewweeks is where does the stateBoard of education come down interms of guidelines for thefall?

Skateboard had worked onguidelines to try to allow forsome reopens and and reallylimited the amount of schoolreopening that could take placeto really small groups of kids.That's what the state board didfor the spring.

So what theboard is working.Now is moreof a plan long term for thefall Well, the Department ofEducation State Superintendenthave anything to do with that.Oh sure sure I think that youknow we'll get a better sensehere in the next few weeks ofwe are state officials wanna goin terms of what a reopeningplan looks likeI thinkeverybody is in agreement thatthey want to try to get theschool reopened.

But what doesthat look like and what does itlook like heading into the falland winter if there's a secondway of peron virus?

And how didthe districts deal with that?the governor talked about ismaking a priority Being ofcourse that kids can go back toschool and I wanna mention weare live on Facebook with KevinRichard from Imho EducationNews.

We are taking yourcomments as they come in.

So ifyou have some thoughts aboutwhat you would like to see interms of if you're a parent oran educator with what you wouldlike to see in your personaldistrict because obviously thisis on a case by case basis, butthings like do you think kidsshould have to wear masks.

Doyou think there should beChesbefore kids enter a buildingsome of those precautions howmany kids should be in abuilding when we're talkingabout social distance and we'dlove to hear your thoughts andcomments as we move throughthis discussion today righthere on making the great Kevinwhat about for the Universitysystems. They've alreadydecided Boise State coming outwith a few thoughts about whatthe fall will look like forkids heading back to the BoiseState campus right so we haveguidelines come out on Friday,both from Boise StateUniversity and the Universityof Idaho.

Both kind of laid outtheir plans with their hopesfor reopening campuses in thefall and both both Boise Stateand the University of Idaho,one reopened they they wannaget the students back oncampus, but you know it's gonnabe a different look.

The thingsare going to be different interms of you know how ourclasses conducted.

Boise istalking about it sort of acombination of face-to-faceclasses.

Online classes, hybridclasses that combine a littlebit of both.

One of the bigchanges at Boise State istalking about and again talkingabout the potential for asecond wave of Corona virushere Boise State plan is toreopen on August 20 fourth,which was their regularlyscheduled date to begin fallsemester, but then afteThanksgiving break everythingwould move online the finalthree weeks of the semesterwould would be conducted onlineto students go home forThanksgiving break and theydon't come back until.

Untilthe spring semester, the ideais to have a little bit ofcontrol over the potential ofstudents or staff coming backfrom Thanksgiving break afterhaving traveled maybe comingback exposed to the virus andpotentially spreading the viruson campus.

So that's one of thebig changes that Boise State istalking about going into thefall.

Did they mention theleadership of Boise State?

Theywere discussing some of thisKevin looking at what other?Schools around the country aredoing or they're seeing Idahois being a very isolatedsituation because of our ruralnature.

Even at Boise State, Imean what's going on inCalifornia certainly not what'shappening here in Idaho.

Idon't think any of this happensin the back of Michelle.

I meanyou talked about the idea ofThanksgiving kinda going to aremote model afterThanksgiving.

I suspect we'regonna see that from otheruniversities around thecountry.

I know that otheruniversities have talked about.Ramping up the beginning of thefall semester, moving it up acouple of weeks so that you canend the fall semester atThanksgiving.

That's not theapproach he is taking andinstead it's the regularschedule, but a differentdelivery model heading into thefinal couple of weeks of thefall semester.

Kevin Let mebring up a few comments here aswe've been getting them in justwanna kinda stream through thisa little bit.

Let you know thatwe are listening and hearingwhat you're saying is we'veengaged in this conversationdone saying I have so manyparents that are very concernedabout social distancing hasanyone thought about the effectonOn our children, kids needhugs social distancing withlittle ones are certainlydifficult and then we'll beCatt, says.

I would like toschools to be back open with norestrictionsI don't know ifthat's where the state board orthe State Department ofEducation is gonna come out.

Ithink you know we'll have tosee what happens in the nextcouple of months and what ishappening with the pandemic.you know across the state andNational.But at this point, what isbeing talked about what wastalked about for reopening inthe spring, which I anticipateis gonna be the starting pointfor what's talked aboutreopening in the fall I.Igotta think that schools aregonna look different.

I have tothink the public schools aregonna look different andcertainly higher education isplanning to look different.Well work is continuing to lookdifferent as you can see rightout and saying we needdistancing good ventilationprobably masks how about hybridclasses the choice to log on tothe classroom virtually orattended in person.

You knowit's going to be interestingwith a comment like this,especially with rollingclosures Kevin that schools mayneed to adapt and be able todo.

A number of differentmodels and really thankgoodness that we have thetechnology we do today that wehave the technology and also atthis point.

You have a littlebit of time.

You know askateboard State Department ofEducation and local educatorscan use this summer to look atwhat they had to do to getthrough the spring and to lookat what they might need to doif the situation change.

If thesituation worse and sometime inthe fall or sometimes in thewinter, you know you have atleast a little bit more time toplan ahead to take a breath tothink about what you're whatyour options are and what youwould do under, you know aworst-case scenario or you knowa worsening scenario maybe notworst case, but if you have anoutbreak and if it's alocalized outbreak or if it'smore of a statewide situationwell, this will be interestingtoo.

I think Kevin to watchThis-we're getting comments infrom Kathy and now from Tomboth of them here reallytalking about allowing.

Parentsto have control and lettingparents make that decision aswe all know as parents who havekids in school districtdistricts, there have beenobviously things in place thatmake sure kids are going toschool.

It's going to beinteresting to see how thestate board handles how manydays kids are allowed to be outof school now and whatexceptions happen because thisisn't just a cut and drynumbers game anymore abouttruancy or not true it.

Yeahwhat kind of absent.

Going toaffect in the fall and that'sgonna be very interesting towatch and it's gonna besomething that I know parents,it can be very interested in.you know what does that looklike what what's what optionsdo parents have to you know youknow put their own kidsprotection first and foremost,which I think everybody wants.I mean, I'm gonna be one kidsto be put at risk here, butwhat does that look like interms of policy in terms of youknow, giving parents theability toYou know react towhat they're saying to reacthow their kids are feeling andand you know try to you know beproactive about this.

So Idon't know what this is goingto look like, but I think thequestions that we're seeingfrom from viewers.

Those arethe very questions that I'msure the state board is gonnabe looking at closely with theState Department of Education'sgonna look like and look atwhat local educators are gonnalook like look at it.

So Ithink we're hitting on thequestions that I know are gonnabe discussed a lot in the.

Andmonths to come and I think youknow parents, you know this isan opportunity to you know ifyou have concerns questions toreach out to your localeducators and and let them knowwhat's on your mind well andsome of those things where wedon't even necessarily thinkabout it.

Here's a comment fromLogan that kids obviously needa safe zone and we have done anumber of stories that IdahoNews six about how kids and youtoo Covenant Idaho educationNews the kids falling throughthe cracks who desperatelyneeds.

To make sure that theyare staying safe and stayinghealthy and we're not justtalking about school lunches.Unfortunately, we could betalking about abuse situationshere so they need that safezone and you know.

Logan alsobrings up a good point to youknow, kids with disabilitiesand how do you reach in ourconstitution for our stategovernment.

It declares thatevery child will have an equaleducation and that's equal totheir ability and that is gonnahave to be a whole new way offiguring this thing out.

Again,we know that the achievementgaps that we already see in theschool system.

Those are gonnabe widened when when kidsreturn in the fall, we knowthat this is gonna affect kidsdifferently, especially kidswith special needs.

So howschools try to help thosestudents you know bridge thatgap or narrow that gap.

Getreacquainted to the structureof a of being back in school.that's gonna be a really bigchallenge for teachers and forparents they're going forward.Travis is saying, especiallykids with disabilities, reallystruggling at home and withvideo chats could understandthat we that just as adults andyou know they need that liveinteraction so how this alllooks is certainly uncertain.We're gonna continue to.Comments and thoughts here onFacebook as we're live withKevin Richard from Idaho, EdNews and go to Idaho at Newsdot ORG.

You're seeing some ofhis stories and the storiesthat his colleagues are doingPop-Up is we're having thisconversation here a couple ofother topics.

I do wanna get tothough and we'd love to getyour comments on this as we'rehere in making the gray realquickly.

Kevin you guys wrote apiece and I thought this wasinteresting you and I havetalked over the last couple ofweeks about the Cares Act andhow much money is coming toschools through the federalgovernment will beIdaho wasset to take in18 million dollars, half ofwhich needed to be able to goto students to help withstudent aid directly andthey've refused the money.

Howcome it was really kindainteresting and I'm not reallysure, but how come is all thatclear except that BYU Idaho,along with the other collegesand universities owned by them,but the Church of Jesus Christof Latter-day Saints Bess maincampus in.

They're their campusin Hawaii.

All of the BYUschools are turning down thisCorona virus aid and what p-I-eIdaho is saying, and this is astory that our friends at EastIdaho News broke on Thursday.What would be Idaho said init's email to the students isthat they feel like they canprovide the student aid withouthaving to accept the federaldollars so it was aninteresting development onlybecause BYU Idaho stood toreceive such a sizable.

Chunkof federal funding and likeyou, said 18 million dollars,that is more than any of thestate-run institutions wouldhave received.

I think BoiseState is in line to and isreceiving and he's going tospend about 11 million dollarsbe what you Idaho again.18 million dollars was whatthey were projected to receiveand yes, at least half of thatwas earmarked for directstudent aid to help studentsovercome financial hardship asa result of the current virus,outbreak well and Kevin remindpeopleThe number that wasgiven to each individual schoolcuz if people haven't heardthis, I think they'd be shockedto know that BYU Idaho is gonnaget 18 million dollars whereBoise State was only going tosee 11 million what was theformula for that?

It was aformula based on studentdemographics.

It was basedlargely on how many studentsout of College or Universityare eligible for federal Pellgrants.

Those are you know thefederal grants that go to tolow income students so the morepegram students you have thelarger share.

The larger chunkof federal money you willreceive the idea being to tohelp schools that have morestudents who are reallysuffering a financial hardshipas a result of the Corona virusWell, let's say on the topic ofmoney shall we because Ithought a really fascinatingstory and I know this gets inthe weeds for some people whoaren't in the education field,but the simple way to put it isthat contract negotiations forteachers happened during thesummer and right now.

It'suncertain times for schooldistricts who do not knowliterally how much moneynecessarily they're evendealing with teacher contracts.What teachers can make,especially with the statelooking to cut possiblya hundred million dollars outof the K to 12 educationbudget.

This is an uncertaintime for negotiators correctKev.

Yeah, it really is and thereason is as you mentioned weknow that the state is gonnahave to.

In some sort of budgetcuts and those are gonna affectKtwelve and the number thatyou're talking about the99 million dollars thatanticipates a five percent cutin state funding andanticipates it.

You know asimilar reduction in taxrevenues coming in.

We don'treally know what the taxrevenue picture is gonna be onJuly first, so the numbers area little bit sketchy but schooldistricts as they go to thebargaining table know that it'sgonna be tight.

I know thatthey don't have as much moneycoming in as they might haveexpected just a few months agoand that affects teachersalaries and it affects futurebenefits, first and foremostbecause that's the largestexpense school district facesyou know the human the humanresources here, you know hiringkeeping teachers on staff,providing them benefits.

That'sthe the largest expense anyschool district faces.Continue to bring in thecomments just as we we'relistening to you as everybodyout there on Facebook land aswe continue to talk about allthese other topics, Probablythe one thing near and dear tomost people's hearts.

As youcan imagine is that what yourparents are gonna be dealingwith come this fall and Shannonwas saying.

One of my concernsis communication wouldn't getto parents as far as a plan ina reasonable amount of time tomake parents have changes inadvance and I can certainlyunderstand the whiplash effectthat all parents went through.Schools just closed down withina week and the whiplash effectthat it had on school districtsand that is a point as we goback to that discussion thatit's gonna take a lot ofcommunication effort to figureout how this looks going intofall and beyond exactly andagain, you would hope that ourlocal schools as well as stateeducation officials now theyhave a summer to start to thinkabout how this might look inthe fall and to start to todraw out.

Scenarios If thishappens with Corona virus, howwould we respond locally?

Ifthis happens?

How do we respondlocally?

I mean this unfoldedso quickly in March and schoolshad to respond so quickly.

Yeahit at least going into the newschool year.

You have theadvantage of if you wanna callit an advantage to at least beable to take a breath.

Okay, atleast be able to take a stepback and you have theexperience from the spring tobuild on and it's been a tryingexperience.

I understand thatbut at least you can look.

Andsay, okay, we know this we wantto do differently.

We know thatthis maybe has some potentialso you know you have someexperience and you have sometime and those are two.

There'stwo things that we didn't havein the spring.

It's true we hadnone of that.

I will it wasboom.

You've got to do this andyou have to do this reallyquickly and you know you've gotto turn on the dime within amatter of days really tough todo in any sector educationbusiness journalism.

We we allhad to change very quickly but.You really had to changequickly and the stakes are youknow.

So when you're talkingabout, you know changing apublic school system for 300000kids in a heartbeat.

It's amassive job.

They're they'rethey have their summer schoolscut out for them all of thestate trying to figure thisout.

Before I let you go, Kevina story that we have beenfollowing now for weeks, butthere's been some interestingdevelopments in case peoplemissed them on Friday when thisreally became kind of news, thestate Superintendent Cher Barr,Of course we've been reportingat Idaho News six that she hasfiled a lawsuit against thestate Board of.

Of which she isa member and the Legislature ingeneral over the taking of 18positions, I believe it is fromher Department IT positions andputting them onto the stateBoard of education that alsotakes away about two pointSeven million dollars from theState Department of Educationbudget and gives it over to thestate Board of Education.

Thislawsuit is now in the hands ofthe Idaho Supreme Court andwhat's been interesting is how.You have been following all ofthe filings that have happenedand Friday's once again, kindagave a little insight into thefact that this literally is inyour words.

A turf for itreally is and so to explainwhat was filed on Friday andsort of you know, put it in thecontext, so the lawsuit wasfiled in late April of againstthe Legislature and against thestate board.

So what we had aweek ago Friday and what wewrote about a week ago, Fridaywas the response from thedefendants, the state board theLegislature their attorneyWhat wethen had this Fridayafternoon the Friday afternoonright before the holidayweekend was the response to theresponse, and that comes fromDavid Leroy statesuperintendent Shure Parrisattorney what I found mostinteresting in these filingsthe constitutional argumentthat is making on our behalfreally didn't change all thatmuch.

We wouldn't expect thatit would, but what I foundreally interesting is he getdig into the supportingdocuments you dig into theexhibits that were filed onFriday.

Stay tuned.

Navarra andher state House liaison MarilynWhitney both filed these thesedetailed chronology of theirconversations with legislatorsduring the session, and it'sjust their accounts of theirconversations with theLegislature.

So it's you knowit's one side of the storyinherently but wow, you knowthey are talking about not justthat.

This was a retaliatorymeasure by legislator, butthey're saying legislatorsreally want to get rid of thiselected position and want toturn the.

Superintendent intoan appointed position as thisis the case in many otherStates, but I was gonna say,let me stop you right therebecause you're right over halfof the States do not have thisas an elected position, thestate superintendent thatposition who runs theDepartment is actuallyappointed by the Governor.Idaho is in the minority onthis because most States dohave an appointed statesuperintendent but our elected.Superintendent is you know thatis part of the Constitution Soto change that to an appointedposition is a pretty heavylift.

You know politically youhave to get two -thirds supportin both houses to get aproposed constitutionalamendment on the ballot, andthen voters have to say yes, soit's not an easy proposition toget rid of an elected positionlike this and turn it into anappointed position.

But the.The fact that this is somethingthat superintendent Barra is isarguing in her defense here andin in in her push to maintainthese positions is that shefeels like her position as anelected state superintendent isunder attack.

This has become avery volatile lawsuit andregardless of the outcome.

Ithink there's gonna be somebitterness.

There's gonna besome residual resentment.you know just this has beenI've called it a scorcherlawsuit and it feels like withevery development with everynew filing.

It feels even moreso well in a time wheneducation is so up in the air,it's going to see whatinteresting to see whatpolitical ramificationssomething like this has notonly inside the state Houseitself and in the workingbodies of the governor's officewith the State Department ofEducation but reunificationsout.

A publicto as educationis in the spotlight because weare all now forced to beteachers in some way or anotherand right, and we've seen thatfeedback already, you knowwhenever I write about thislawsuit, one of the threadsthat always seems to comethrough in the comments is whyare we doing this?

Why are wehaving this lawsuit when we'realready having a co-education?Why are we spending money onlawyers?

Why are we going tothe courts on this?

You knowI'veSuperintend in the bar thisargument and Davids on herbehalf is this is an importantconstitutional issue that wecan't afford to set aside, butI think the optics for forreaders and for taxpayers is weare embroiled in a lawsuit ofagency versus agency.

You knowstate official versus stateofficial all being paid forwith taxpayer dollars.

All thelegal fees are coming fromtaxpayers.

That's a.

That's ahard look.

The optics of it aredefinitely challenging for forsuperintendent of this, don'tget any of that.

Well, we canwrap that discussion up becauseit won't be wrapped up untilthe Supreme Court of Idaho.Here's the cases via our lovelyzoom life now that we all haveand that happens you're rightnext up June fifth the SupremeCourt will hold oral argumentsas you say they'll hear oralarguments in this case, Noclear.

Timeline on when thecourt will accept that I wouldanticipate them acting fairlyquickly simply because theSupreme Court has put thisthing on a fast track, theshift of positions the shift.The dollar is scheduled to gointo effect on July first, so Ithink the state state SupremeCourt is definitely feeling theyou know the definitely see theimportance of making a decisionhanding down a ruling beforethis goes too much further.Kevin.

What do you think?

Somedecision very quickly after theJune fifth hearing, Let mebring in a couple more commentsfor you just because these willcontinue to come in.

We reallyappreciate all of you engagingwith us right here on makingthe grade on Facebook.

KevinRichard from Idaho EducationNews joining me as always thisone really caught my eye,Christina saying I'm.Grandparent raising mygrandsons they're alreadybehind because I have no ideawhat I'm doing.

Christine.We're feeling for you, nomatter who you are and what ageyou are she says.

I don'tunderstand computers and theyneed face-to-face teaching sothat was just really caught myeye.

And then this one fromJana I'd like to bring intowhich Jenna we appreciate thatyou've liked our livebroadcast.

We appreciate that,but she says that she loves togo to a four -day school weekand that's actually alreadyhappened in one local schooldistrict right, the MiddletonSchool District made thatdecision a couple of weeks agoand to my knowledge and I've.For four days, quite a bit overthe past feyears MiddletonWeek Let me you haven't justwritten about it.

I haveapology if you haven't writtenabout it.

Kevin you haveaward-winning workout on thisbecause of the in-depthresearch that you've done.

Soif people wanna go to Idaho,Edd News dot ORG and reallyread about four day schoolweeks and whether or not theywork and how they work fordifferent school districts allacross the state of Idaho.That's where you can find it.okay go on my friend.

I justhad to be about five years agonow.

Your four -day schoolsaround the state and you knowthat's already a project, butit is on our radar that maybefive years later, we need totake a second look at four dayschool.

So that's kind of onour on our long-term docket ofof things to do when we havenothing else to do because fourschools are a growing trend inIdaho.

As you mentioned Milton,I made the move to a four-dayschool district to A- four acalendar in the fall Blackfootin Eastern Idaho as well.

Theseare the two largest districtsto my to my research.

This willbe two largest districts in thestate to go to a four daycalendar and had been in thepast very small districts to alarge degree rural districts toalert right now in MiltonBlackfoot.

These are not theseare larger districts.

They'rethey're kind of midsize schooldistricts, so something we willdefinitely be wanting to watchmore closely well andespecially as we move forwardwith what online learning couldlook like for the fall orrolling online learning, I meanjust as a parent myself.

Alittle glimpse into my life,we're not supposed toofficially end until Junesecond in the West of thedistrict.

I can pretty muchpromise you that we will beending it in my House earlierthan next week.

Oh, it's it'severybody's having a to adjustright, Everybody's having toreact.

Okay in case you haven'tjoined us for making the gradeand this becomes the sillysection because you know wejust have to do it.

This way isthat Kevin has an incrediblesock collection has nothing todo with education unless youwanna grab your kids and bringthem to the screen right.Thethis is this is the fun partwhere I met, Kevin try and showme what he's wearing for theday up in front of thisawesome.

So the story behindthis is that you knowjournalists are often said thatwe try to never read thecomments because sometimes thecomments are you know.

Some ofthe comments on our stories area little bit of color but onecommon term once referred to meas a, you know what.

It's likeI said, it's one of my favoriteof all time referred to me asthe quote corporate penguinheart.

Whatever that means Iloved it corporate penguinhearts.

So whenever I wear thissocks, I think of that commentbecause you know they'rethey're there, PenguinsPenguins a corporate penguinheart.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Soyes.

I don't know what thatmeans except that doesn't soundvery warm or friendly.

So yes,corporate penguin heart Idon't.You you could look goodin a tux with a Red tie.

I'mgonna give them that they'revery versatile.

These thesesocks that can go a lot ofdifferent places.

Kevin it'sgonna be 98 degrees thisweekend, You know it's perfect.Penguin weather.

Not reallyright.

No.

Yeah.

We're gonnasend you back to school myfriend.

Yeah.

Oh everybody.Thank you so much for joiningus for this live broadcast ofmaking the great Kevin Thankyou for playing my Penguingames as I now refer to themwith your Saks me and we will.Following closely is Idaho EddNews dot ORG continues to dothe amazing writing that theydo for all of us in theeducation world and trying tocover the education world inthis unprecedented times.

Ifyou'd like to continue tocomment, Kevin and I do like toread your comments even ifthey're a little read yourcomments you can call mewhatever you want in thecomments too.

And I'm I'veheard it all well.

Penguin myfriends there you go and ofcourse, I Idaho News Six.

We'llcontinue to bring you thelatest education stories everysingle night as we broadcast at56 and 10.

Enjoy your day andyour Penguin socks.

We'll

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