Safe school guidelines coming next month

OLYMPIA, Wash. — It is just 14 weeks until the reopening of school, and Chris Reykdal, Washington’s superintendent of public instruction, is alerting families that many changes are coming.

At Olympia’s Garfield Elementary, students and parents are ready to get back to class.

Kelli Carmony said, "It would be nice,” for her children to be able to return to the classroom, but state leaders are still trying to figure out what that will look like.

Speaking to the League of Education Voters, Reykdal said, “It’s still an enormous challenge for parents to be at home with kids, especially as the economy unlocks, so we are truly trying to figure out how to get schools open in a safe and healthy way.”

With no cure or vaccine for coronavirus, classrooms, and even the school day, will be reconfigured for social distancing.

“Maybe it’s a day on/day off because we can’t have all our students in the same building at one time. Maybe it’s differentiated, (so) elementary school kids get more of the face time (and) high school kids get more of the online time,” Reykdal added.

A 123 person task force is working on the recommendations for reopening schools.

“We hope to give guidance to districts by the first or second week of June,” Reykdal said.

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