If there’s anything you don’t know about sending kids back to school in the Boise School District, check the website boiseschools.org and you’ll probably find the answer. Did you know there are late-start elementary schools? Standard elementary schools in Boise start their school day at 8:45am and end at 3:15pm, a six-hour and 30-minute day. Late-start schools start at 9:15am and end at 3:45pm. The reason given by the district is “to help ease transportation costs”. There are ten late-start elementary schools. The junior high day is 7:45am to 2:30pm. It’s 15 minutes longer than the elementary day at six hours and 45 minutes. And the high school day is 7:50am to 3:12pm, clocking in at seven hours and 22 minutes. There are lists on the website of school supplies students will need in every grade. Try not to get too sentimental when you see that a box of crayons disappears from the list beginning with fifth grade. You can check the cafeteria menus for every day and every school. Each school in the district, including junior high and high school, serves both breakfast and lunch. You might even notice that ten elementary schools and two junior highs list a supper menu. That’s because those schools feature an after-school program called Kid City. Kid City is for first through sixth grade students and includes homework assistance, youth sports, recreation programming, STEM activities (science, technology, engineering and math), art projects, games and a healthy snack, which is what the menu means when it says “supper”. If you’re interested in Kid City, the website says only students who have registered ahead of time will be allowed to participate, and the programs have a finite number of available spaces. Registration begins this Monday morning at 7am and requires a twenty-dollar registration fee, although scholarships are available for those who qualify. For registration information, call (208) 608-7680. Also at boiseschools.org you’ll find a thorough amount of information about district “devices”, meaning electronic stuff. No, you don’t need to purchase a laptop for your child. Kindergarteners will be assigned iPads, and students in first through twelfth grades will be assigned Chromebooks. No charge if your child doesn’t break it or lose it. You can, if you wish, purchase a damage/theft/loss deposit for 25 dollars. The deposit is good for one and only one occurrence per year. After that, you pay or negotiate. You’ll find that information on the website, too.
