SVVSD plan in play for in-person learning

On Wednesday, Dec. 16 the St. Vrain Valley School District Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss the return to school in 2021 and on Friday, Dec. 18, sent out an email to all parents, including a roadmap to in-person learning.

Don Haddad, the superintendent of SVVSD, along with the counsel of many others, has created a plan to get students back in-person and ready to learn. In short, the plan is to have elementary students to be fully in-person starting Wednesday, Jan. 6, but middle and high schoolers won't see the inside of classrooms yet.

The current plan for the middle schoolers is to initially start fully online and then proceed to the hybrid schedule the following week. High school students will be learning fully remotely from the start of semester (Jan. 6) to Friday, Jan. 15. After that time they will transition to their original hybrid schedule.

"The crux of the message [from the Colorado and Boulder Health Departments], as we've heard all along, the recommendation was very strong that elementary students should be in-person," said Haddad. "That's based on data they've seen throughout the year, we heard that very clearly. We also heard that middle and high school students should return in-person as well. As they get a little older, the risk increases."

Some of the speculation around this trend is that elementary students are not able to leave their houses and mingle with peers as easily as some middle and high school students. Senior Jazz Mueller commented, "When in school I felt like most of my fellow students took the health precautions seriously. I heard a couple stories of people not being safe outside of school though."

It's also worth noting that the district is setting up options for students to receive academic support for students. "We will have opportunities for academic support on the days you're scheduled or the days you're not scheduled," Haddad explained. "It may not always be your teacher, but a teacher in that area. We also have set up counseling support in every school." Some of these opportunities may also be available on the weekends, once the district is fully engaged in the new semester.

The district is still offering the Fully Synchronous and LaunchED learning to allow students concerned about hybrid and in-person learning to take classes remotely. These options are being offered to protect students' health, but also the health of students' families.

Sophomore student Stephanie Mow said, "Going to school not only could affect my health but also my family's. I don't want to be the one to carry COVID-19 and risk someone else's life."

Despite the variations in online/hybrid/in-person classes, students at all levels will have their Fridays stay asynchronous--learning from home. The district hopes to promote social distancing beyond the health precautions implemented in schools.

Between the board of education's special meeting last Wednesday and the letter Superintendent Haddad sent last Friday, the district has emphasized that health precautions are taken very seriously. It has been reported through the Roadmap to Learning, the state has given "1.6 million medical grade masks to every school in Colorado."

But the definition of medical grade mask is still somewhat ambiguous. Does this mean the schools are providing sufficient masks for teachers and students to use, such as the KN95 mask? Superintendent Haddad did say that all staff members will be given the option to get face shields, but the CDC does not recommend face shields as a substitute for masks.

"We'll be ready to go... We will maintain all the mitigation efforts [deep cleaning at schools, hand sanitizer at all classrooms, etc.]," said Haddad at Wednesday's special meeting. "We have ordered face shields for all our staff. We will also maintain our [COVID] testing at the Innovation center, we've opened it up free of charge to students as well as adults."

"Masks are required at all times and you were suggested to take your temperature at home before going to school. Hand sanitizer is set out everywhere and there were disinfecting wipes given to every classroom so that students could wipe down their desks before and after class," Mow said.

But she also expressed concerns, "I got at least one email every week saying that there has been a student exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. It terrified me and after a while my parents pulled me out of hybrid learning and I started to do full online learning for the rest of the semester. If Niwot High School got an email almost every week then I can't imagine what the rest of the district looked like."

The school district deems in-person learning so important that even at "extreme high risk" levels of covid concern on the Safety Dial, in-person learning should still be considered for students "as appropriate." (See photo.) While children are not seen as a part of the high risk community, they can still be infected and affected by COVID. The schools are taking their precautions and if they are followed as intended, believe there should not be a problem.

Paula Peairs, the board's vice president said, "I'm very confident in this plan...I imagine there will be little tweaks along the way, there always are, [but it'll keep everyone safe]."

"There's an explicit risk with opening schools," said senior and student body president Ben Goff. "Overall, I think they did the best they could."