Students won't return to school buildings this year

Iowa’s PreK-12 schools will not reopen this academic year, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Friday morning during her daily press conference.
“Believe me I would like nothing more than to stand before you today and tell you our students [will be] in their classrooms,” Reynolds said, “so therefore I regret to inform you that Iowa schools will not reopen this year.”
Reynolds did say that districts would need to continue to provide continuous learning opportunities to its students until the end of the academic year.
Her decision means that springs sports like golf, track and field, trapshooting, soccer and tennis will not be held this year, and Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo said a decision more information on summer sports like baseball and softball will be made before June 1.
Lebo did laud the efforts schools around the state in recent weeks.
“Even though our school buildings are closed, learning opportunities across in Iowa are in full swing thanks to the efforts of our school staff and leaders,”  Lebo said. “Under normal circumstances, the timeline for developing continuous learning plans would take months, years even. Our schools developed and implemented solutions in a matter of weeks.”
Reynolds announced on March 15 that she was recommending that all school districts close their buildings for four weeks and that those days would be “forgiven” when it came to the required number of days or hours a district must provide educational services.
On April 2, she extended the closures through April 30 but did not forgive the added closure days; instead requiring districts to come up with required online courses, voluntary enrichment programs or a combination of both.
“This was a very hard decision,” Reynolds said, “… because of the repercussions on Iowans, families and businesses throughout the state. … Unfortunately, we’re just not going to be there by May 1.”