Broken Arrow Public Schools Discussing Back To School Plans

Broken Arrow Public Schools' Board of Education will announce how students and staff will head back to school this fall.

The board will vote on the district's distance learning and reopening plans with the in-person meeting beginning at the Education Service Center at 8:30 Wednesday morning.

The plan presented to the board is for Broken Arrow to start school August 19th, if on August 10th the specific zip codes where the broken arrow school district falls are not in what's known as the "red level," set by the state COVID Alert system, which is more than 50 cases per 100,000. The bottom line is the district will not base its decision on Tulsa or Wagoner county numbers.

Under the proposed plan, district leaders also talked about what determines when a single classroom would close, and when an entire school would close.

Superintendent Dr. Janet Vinson says when 30% of classrooms in a school have an infected student, it's time to close that site for 14 days, for a total of 10 instructional days where the students would shift to distance learning. District leaders also talked about meals, transportation protocols, athletics, and band, so there's a lot to consider before things wrap up here with a vote.

Aside from the reopening plan, on the agenda is the issue of buying more licenses that may be needed for students to access the virtual curriculum. The agenda says that cost should not exceed $900,000 without further board approval. Broken Arrow Public Schools put out a survey for parents and staff that had to be filled out by Sunday night for those wanting to voice their thoughts.

In a Facebook post asking for feedback, the district said all comments shared would be provided to district leadership on Monday. There were more than 400 comments to sift through on that post.

The deadline to enroll in the district's Virtual Academy is August 5th. The academy serves students in pre-k through 12th grade.