MERIDIAN, Idaho — The West Ada School District Board of Trustees held their regular meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. During this meeting, the board voted unanimously to adopt a revised reopening plan with recommendations from Idaho doctors and Central District Health.
Under this new plan, students in grades K-5 will return to the classroom for a full day Tuesday-Friday. On Mondays, students will attend in-person classes but will be released early.
Students in grades 6-12 will continue to learn remotely on Mondays. Under these new revisions, students will be broken into two teams in order to allow schools to follow distancing guidelines. Team 1 will attend in-person classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Team 2 will attend on Wednesdays and Fridays. Students will learn remotely on the days they are not in the classroom.
This new schedule will begin on Nov. 10.
Rather than set criteria that would require the entire district to transition to remote learning, the board decided to allow schools to transfer to remote learning on a case-by-case basis. If one or more schools in the district experience an outbreak of COVID-19, those schools will begin learning remotely rather than the whole district.
Former CEO of St. Luke's Dr. David Pate originally recommended that students in grades 4-5 return to the classroom on an alternating schedule similar to that of grades 6-12, but would also be released early on Monday.
Pate suggested this change be made due to students in grades 4-5 having a higher classroom cap, making distancing more difficult.
The board ultimately approved the second recommendation they were given unanimously.
Trustee Amy Johnson made a motion to ask the West Ada administration to develop a plan that would give parents the authority to decide how their kids would receive instruction during the upcoming semester. Should this be adopted, parents would be able to decide whether their children will learn remotely or in-person full-time.
Trustee Johnson's motion passed 3-0-2.
Before adjourning, vice-chairman Steve Smylie tenured his resignation, stating he felt it was time for him to move on. He briefly touched on the criticism he has received from West Ada parents, teachers, and even government officials.
"What we heard tonight was a lot of anger, a lot of passion. I get it," Smylie said. "I've listened to radio commentators and other people that have gotten onto social media. I've been called a lot of wonderful little names. I've had about 540 emails and I stopped counting."
Smylie also stated he feels none of the compromises proposed by the board have been accepted by the public.
"I am at the age where I've failed in trying to retire," he said. "It's time to get back to normal for me. I have every confidence in the leaders we picked in this district and I have every confidence in you, my colleagues, that you'll find somebody that'll have that same spirit."
Hundreds of West Ada teachers participated in a districtwide sick-out on Monday, Oct. 19, and Tuesday, Oct. 20. Though the sick-out ended on Wednesday, Oct. 21, West Ada parents filed a lawsuit claiming the sick-out was a strike, which is illegal under Idaho common law.
Tuesday's meeting will be live-streamed on KTVB.COM and on the KTVB YouTube channel.
To watch the board meeting, click below: