In the face of a lawsuitand increasing pressure from legislators to reopen, Salt Lake City’s school board yielded Tuesday night and will have its junior high and high school students back in classrooms in person starting next month, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
It will be the first time that those kids, in grades seven through 12, are able to attend school for a full day face-to-face with their teachers since the pandemic began last spring and classes were moved online. The approved reopening will start Feb. 8.
“This plan is based on data and science,” said Melissa Ford, the board’s president. “We need to be solution-oriented for our children. And I think this is a step in the right direction for finding a path forward that balances everything.”
The decision came at the tail end of a late Tuesday board meeting, which stretched into more than four hours of discussion and debate. The measure passed on a 6-1 vote, with board member Katherine Kennedy as the lone dissenter.
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