Des Moines, Iowa — (RI) — Governor Kim Reynolds says in-person classes are to be the primary mode of educating Iowa’s K-through-12 students this school year.
(as said) “Schools that choose not to return to school for at least 50% in-person instruction are not defying me,” Reynolds said. “They’re defying the law.”
On Monday night, Urbandale’s school board voted to continue online classes for a year-round school that state officials ordered to start in-person classes this Friday. And Waukee school officials issued a statement, saying state law gives them local control over these decisions. During a mid-day news conference, Reynolds strongly pushed back.
(as said) “We’ve heard from countless experts, pediatricians, social workers, mental health providers, the CDC,” Reynolds said, “that what’s best for kids is for them to be in school and in the classroom.”
Reynolds says the vast majority of Iowa school are planning to start the school year with in-person classes, while a handful of districts are not following her guidance.
(as said) “We’re going to continue to do the outreach and work with them and see if we can’t get them to comply,” Reynolds says. “It is the law.”
If Urbandale, Waukee, Des Moines, Ames and Iowa City districts begin this August with remote learning without state officials’ approval, the governor says students will not get credit for those days of on-line instruction. The governor also is accusing the media of stoking fears that children will contract the virus at school and teachers may die of it.
(as said) “What we’re doing to these kids is unconscionable, the fear that we’re instilling in them,” she said, “and so I think we all have a responsibility to do better including me and we can and I’m working on it every single day. Come hell or high water, we’re going to get through this.”
Reynolds says school administrators in districts that begin remote learning without state approval may lose their license.
(as said) “The kids need to be in the classroom,” Reynolds says. “…We’re in a much better position than we were when schools were shut down. Kids have not had instruction for over five months.”
Reynolds says state officials will meet with administrators from the five districts that are so far sticking with plans for remote learning in hopes of resolving the impasse.
(as said) “I’ve also heard from parents. I’ve also heard from single moms. I’ve also heard from moms who have children who have behavioral health issues,” Reynolds says. “…What we’re trying to do is to balance, to make sure that we can open safely and responsibly.”
The governor’s spokesman says a state-maintained website will list the 14-day rolling average of positive COVID-19 cases in every school district. Once the so-called positivity rate reaches 15 percent AND at least 10 percent of students are absent, district officials may seek state permission to send all students home and shift to online instruction only for 14 days.
