The Panorama School Board approved a resolution for pandemic response and emergency suspension of policy at Monday’s regular meeting as Governor Reynolds recently called for the statewide school closure to be extended through the rest of April.

Superintendent Shawn Holloway shared with the Board that school districts are now given three options to choose from for a continuous learning plan. The first is to offer no learning and then make up for the days lost. The second option is for a voluntary plan which would give the District flexibility as not all students have internet at home and the District does not have a 1-to-1 computer program. The third choice for a mandatory plan gives assignments that are graded for students’ transcripts, but you have to ensure equity for all students to follow this learning method. Holloway said it’s for these reasons they are moving forward on a voluntary plan, “We’re going to use Google Classroom as our learning platform. So really that becomes the delivery of our content, but then also our professional development for our staff right now, because you know a number of people aren’t familiar with Google Classroom and how to use it so really this week becomes professional development.”

Holloway told the Board that learning activities would be distributed next week, and the District is conducting a survey to see which students would need paper copies mailed to them. Monday’s meeting also included approval of the fiscal year 2021 budget which proposes a property tax rate of about $13.38 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.