Coronavirus in rural America (Part LXXXV): Rural Idaho school district prepares to welcome students

Kirk Siegler reports today for National Public Radio from the Bruneau-Grandview School District in southern Idaho.  Here's the lede:

At the Bruneau-Grandview School District in rural southern Idaho, a couple dozen teachers are crowded into the small library.

They're doing a refresher training for online teaching. In person-classes are scheduled to begin Monday, but with coronavirus cases continuing to rise in Idaho and other states, it's an open question for how long. 

Superintendent Ryan Cantrell, who's helping lead the Google Classroom training, is advising his staff that last-minute decisions will be the unfortunate normal this upcoming school year. Parents have the option of sending their kids to school this week, or staying fully online or some combination of both. 

A recent survey indicated that about three-quarters of the district's families were comfortable sending their kids back to school this fall. 

When the district abruptly went to online-only last Spring, Cantrell says some students dropped off the map, learning suffered, especially in outlying areas where there's little or no Internet. 

"There's a general consensus of let's get moving," Cantrell says. "Let's get the kids back in here so that we can find out where they're at, how we can help them."

The story features a teacher from Boise who commutes on hour each way to work in this rural school.  She wears a mask because she doesn't want to bring the virus to her students, a community that has had few coronavirus cases compared to Boise.

Siegler also quotes an Idaho State Senator, Steven Thayn, in a plea for local control, even if it means disregarding medical experts:

Listening to experts to set policy is an elitist approach. 

The story continues:   

At a recent legislative hearing, Thayn, vice chair of an education committee, pushed a bill that would take authority away from Idaho's local health districts so they can't enforce school closures or mandatory mask orders. Many Republicans argued that local school boards should have the final say, not public health experts. 

That bill and another that would limit a school's liability when it comes to coronavirus lawsuits is likely to be debated in a special session of the legislature later this month.