The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education will take action to approve their COVID-19 Smart Start 2020 plan. They will also look at changing the first day of school for students to Monday, August 24 during their Monday, July 13 meeting at 6:00 p.m.
Preparations for the reopening of schools in August has been ongoing for two months. Twenty members of the district’s Smart Start Work Group designed the plan to address how K-12 education and activities in district schools will take place. Decisions will be made based on low (green), medium (yellow), or high (red) risk COVID-19 community transmission scenarios. The plan will continue to be revised as medical information, science, and the pandemic situation evolves throughout the 2020-21 school year.
Pegge Erkeneff of the KPBSD offered details about the meeting: “The school board, on Monday July 13, will be meeting at 6:00 p.m. Two of the items that they’ll be voting on are to approve the plan the district has put together so that we can safely open schools in August. We did hear loud-and-clear that parents want students in class; that came from our survey. So, we’re working to put that into place in a safe way, but we will have parent-choice. The second thing is a chance in the first day of school. That will be voting on, moving it to Monday, August 24.”
She also said that a huge part of the district’s proposal is parental choice: “So, we know that some families want their children in-school. Other families might need a remote-learning option through their neighborhood school, and that would be completely different than home schooling. So, there will be parent-choice. That’s a really important element of the plan we’ve designed.”
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development requires all school districts to submit their plan by July 31. The recommended action for the Board of Education is to approve the KPBSD plan. After approval, on July 14, the plan will be available at the KPBSD Smart Start webpage. Any interested parties can view the document now in BoardDocs.
The district recommends changing the first day of school of students to later than the original date of August 18. Changing the first day of school for students to August 24 will provide four additional critical in-service workdays for staff. COVID-19 brings a significant number of extra health and safety measures, instructional options for parents and guardians, school routine shifts, schedules, and operational procedures.
The Board of Education’s meeting will be a virtual and telephonic meeting, due to current CDC recommendations. The public is invited to listen. It will be broadcast live on the district’s website, and can also be accessed via telephone by doing the following on July 13 at 6:00 p.m.:
- (877) 853-5257
- Conference ID: 708 024 188
- When prompted for an Attendee ID, press #
Anyone can submit comments that will be read during the meeting. Email them to Lisa Gabriel by 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 9. To pre-register to testify telephonically or for technical difficulties or questions, Lisa can be contacted via telephone at (907) 714-8836, Monday – Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
