Gov. Reynolds looking at opportunity for summer school, activities

Published by editor on Tue, 05/12/2020 - 8:25am

By:

Jake Ryder

regionalsports@midamericapub.com

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds indicated that she is continuing to look at data regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, but is also hopeful that summer school and summer activities like high school baseball and softball will be able to resume in June.

Gov. Reynolds made these statements as part of a virtual "Grading Our Governors" panel hosted by FreedomWorks, a free-market advocacy group. The group graded all 50 governors in the United States on their handling of re-opening their individual state's economy, issuing an "A" to Gov. Reynolds.

"We'll be looking at this on a daily, weekly and two-week perspective to continue to manage the data," Reynolds said, "and see where we can continue to start to open up and potentially bring more counties on board. … I'm hoping that potentially by maybe June we will open up some of our summer activities so we can start some of the remediation that I think will potentially will be necessary because of the lost time with the COVID virus and closing down schools for four-to-five months.

"But again, we need to do it in a responsible manner and we have put a lot of significant work into making sure we have childcare available, especially our essential workforce and Iowans that have had to stand on the front lines during the coronavirus. We're anticipating possibly June but, the data's going to have to support that."

Seventy-seven counties currently have relaxed restrictions on retail stores and restaurants, allowing for 50 percent capacity. The other 22 counties are under further restrictions until May 15, and businesses like bars and salons remain closed in all 99 counties until at least May 15.

The baseball and softball seasons for Iowa high schools were suspended until at least June 1, with Gov. Reynolds likely to make a statement on any extension to that date closer to the end of May. Monday, May 4 was the original first practice date for baseball prior to this suspension, May 11 was the original first practice date for softball.