BOISE, Idaho — The election cycle is in full swing, with presidential candidates hitting campaign trails hard. Locally, one of Idaho's largest school districts is looking at Election Day, and how to handle the hoards of voters.
Boise School District (BSD) held a special meeting Monday night, reviewing a handful of topics. The big one was safety in schools, following a series of social media threats going around both locally and nationally. The other big topic, making Election Day a day off, so students would not have to attend school.
The reasoning behind the decision comes in part with where polling locations are.
In Boise, 31 of the BSD schools are used as polling locations, bringing in a wide array of people into the schools.
To reduce risk, BSD proposed making the national voting day into a day of no school, and it passed. The board approved of the measure, moving forward with no school on Nov. 5.
"The district believes that canceling classes will ensure safety of both voters and students while assisting Ada County elections," said Nick Smith, deputy superintendent of operations.
BSD points out that they have enough days in their schedule, so they will not need to add any to the calendar to make up for Nov. 5.