SALT LAKE CITY — More than a month after approving a plan for elementary school students to return for in-person learning within the Salt Lake City School District, the school board discussed what’s next for secondary schools on Tuesday night.
The board ultimately voted in favor of a motion to tie the restart of in-person learning of grades 7-12 to the vaccine timeline as recommended by the superintendent and approved by the school board. Glendale Middle School will have flexibility with 6th grade. No official restart date for secondary school has been determined.
Watch the meeting here:
“I intend to make a formal proposal to the Board of Education to offer an in-person learning option for middle and high school students,” said Interim Superintendent of Salt Lake City School District Larry Madden in a statement on Monday. “The Board of Education has always expressed a desire to bring our students back into the classroom as soon as we could safely provide that option.”
Madden references COVID-19 vaccinations ‘coming soon’ for educators and frontline school employees and said that he felt safe making a recommendation to the Board to offer an in-person learning option for secondary students after staff members have the opportunity to be vaccinated.
"The vaccine is definitely a game-changer, especially in our district ... that has been hardest hit by COVID-19," district spokeswoman Yándary Chatwin said. "The issue now is to see when we can get those vaccines to our educators. We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect not just our students, but our educators, and the vaccine's a crucial component to that.”
Prior reports have indicated that Madden planned to propose middle and high school students be back for in-person learning by February 8, 2021.
Click here to view the material Madden presented during the board meeting.
Twitter thread:
TONIGHT: @slcschools are holding their first Board meeting of 2021.
LOTS on the agenda tonight including welcoming new board members, discussing the search for a new superintendent AND looking at the future of in-person learning for secondary schools (middle & high school).
— 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐞 (@brian_schnee) January 6, 2021
This wasn't the initial proposal that was put forth by Superintendent Madden.
However, the board will now depend on his timeline recommendations based on when the vaccine becomes available to teachers/district employees.
— 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐞 (@brian_schnee) January 6, 2021
