BOISE, Idaho — The election cycle is in full swing, with presidential candidates hitting campaign trails hard. Locally, two of Idaho's largest school districts is looking at Election Day, and how to handle the hoards of voters.
Boise School District and West Ada School District have confirmed Nov. 5 as a non-school day for students.
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.
West Ada and Boise schools are only making a schedule change with Nov. 5 becoming a Professional Development Day for staff. BSD is giving their staff the option to work from home for that day. West Ada will require their staff to work in-person as usual.
The reasoning behind the decisions come 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.
Other local districts are still determining if they will hold school for students on Nov. 5. Nampa and Caldwell are discussing the option of holding polling sites at their school campuses. Nampa School District mentioned to KTVB the possibility of adding more security measures and working with Nampa Police if they do host polls.
Kuna has confirmed to have polling sites at some of their schools but will still have regularly scheduled school on Nov. 5.
Parma, Wilder, New Plymouth, Homedale, Horseshoe Bend and Fruitland school districts say they will not have polling stations and will have school on Nov. 5 as usual.