Statewide Iowa — To quote an Alice Cooper song lyric, “School’s out for summer.”
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has announced Iowa schools will NOT reopen in May and the traditional school year is over.
(As above) “Believe me, I would like nothing more than to stand before you today and announce that Iowa will be open for school in May,” Reynolds said during her daily news conference. “…I can’t tell you with certainty based on the Department of Public Health’s data that they’re providing to the office that early May will be the right time for students, teachers and staff to gather again in their classrooms, so therefore I regret to say that Iowa schools will not be reopening for this school year.”
The governor says she’ll make this order official on May 1st. Reynolds has waived the mandatory school start date that falls in the final week of August — so schools may begin the next school year earlier. Iowa Department of Education director Ann Lebo says school districts must present a “Return to Learn” plan to the state by July 1st to help students catch up for lost time in the classroom.
(As above) “Closing schools through the end of the year is not an easy decision and we do know the challenges this creates,” Lebo says, “but we also know this decision is necessary to ensure the health and safety of those we serve.”
The governor says she made this decision because Iowa has not yet hit the expected peak in COVID-19 cases — the state report released this morning showed 191 new cases have been identified. Spring sports are cancelled. State officials will notify schools by June 1st about the status of summer sports.
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Original story posted 11:31 am 4/17/2020
Statewide Iowa — To quote an Alice Cooper song lyric, “School’s out for summer.”
During her 11:00 am daily press conference today (Friday 4/17/2020), Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced that she was extending the school closures statewide through the end of the school year.
Reynolds originally pushed an April date back to May 1st for schools to reopen, but declared today that she is ordering schools closed for the remainder of the current 2019-2020 school year.
