Carson City schools consider opening sites to older elementary students

The Carson City School District Board of Trustees is calling for a special meeting Thursday to potentially take action on opening schools to third- to fifth-grade students at the elementary levels and sixth-grade students at the middle school level four days a week effective Jan. 19.

If approved, students would be attending Tuesday through Friday.

Superintendent Richard Stokes reported Tuesday at the regular school board meeting to board members that there has been interest by school staff members and parents to have all students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade to return for in-class instruction at least four days a week. He then pursued a request with the Nevada Department of Education for a variance for transportation but learned that day that had been denied.

“Even though we’re still working toward overcoming barriers to putting more students back in our schools, we may have to be asking for some support from our families,” Stokes said. “If they do want to come back, we may need to ask them to make a way either to bring their children to school or to support them to getting to school other than our buses because we won’t have the ability to lift a complete governmental restriction of putting our students on our buses.”

Stokes said many will choose to view this situation with approval or disdain but also wanted to convey full remote learning is still an option available to families.

The meeting, limited to school staff and the Board of Trustees, at the Bob Boldrick Theater in the Community Center, will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday online at the Carson City School District website, www.carsoncityschools.com and clicking on “School Board,” then “Join 12/17 School Board Meeting.”