Schools close until end of school year

■ Students will continue with online learning.

Siloam Springs School District will continue educating students online through the end of the school year, according to Superintendent Jody Wiggins.

Schools across the state will be closed for in-person instruction through the end of the semester in response to the covid-19 pandemic, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced on Monday. Schools were originally closed from March 17 through March 30, before the closure was initially extended through April 17.

Siloam Springs Schools will move forward and continue providing online instruction, meals and wireless internet hot spots, Wiggins said. The last day of school in Siloam Springs is scheduled for May 22, according to the school calendar.

The district has a plan in place to educate students for the rest of the year. Teachers just need students to be online, participate and engage, Wiggins said. Currently, about 65 to 95 percent of students are participating in online lessons, depending on the school building, Wiggins said. Teachers and administrators are focusing on reaching out to students they have not heard from, he said.

Across the grade levels, there will be some content that schools won’t be able to get to, Wiggins said.

“We are just going to move forward,” he said. “There will be some gaps for the kids next year and we have already started to restructure what we are going to do from a curriculum side.”

The district has made wireless internet available at a list of locations and may have an opportunity to expand or add locations, Wiggins said.

“We think we are doing a decent job of reaching kids and keeping them engaged and we are hoping through a little effort to reach out to kids and parents who are not engaged. … We are making the best of of a bad situation or trying to at least,” Wiggins said.

The school board will hold its first meeting on Thursday since schools were closed last month. The district is offering school board members the choice to physically attend the meeting or join by video conference using Zoom, Wiggins said. The state is waiving some requirements in order to allow board members to vote virtually, he said.

The meeting will be physically

open to the public, but the Zoom session will not be, Wiggins said. If anyone attends, they will be spread out in the room and use social distancing, he said. Recordings of the meeting will be available on the school website sometime after the meeting, he said.

Wiggins is not encouraging administrators to attend the meeting inperson. Board meetings don’t generally have a large audience unless the board has a celebration and there are no celebrations this month, he said.

“We don’t anticipate a large crowd there,” Wiggins said. “Whoever shows up, we can get them properly spaced.”

Wiggins encouraged parents and students to watch the school’s website and social media sites for updates.