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St. Vrain Valley School District students will return to a hybrid model of in-person learning on Oct. 5. Data shows the COVID-19 pandemic is not widespread among the local school community to prevent students' part-time return to school buildings, Superintendent Don Haddad said Monday night.
Haddad announced the decision during a virtual town hall meeting attended in person by school board members along with school and Boulder County health officials. The meeting also was watched by as many as 3,200 online viewers.
The school district began the school year with all students taking classes online. Haddad said this allowed the district to review the tracking of COVID-19 spread and to see how other districts were doing when they returned to in-person classes.
“While it seemed like a long time, and it was, I knew it created hardships,” Haddad said. “But the concern over the safety of children, teachers and staff made it worth the time to make sure.”
Haddad had said earlier this month he favored a hybrid approach of instruction after six weeks of online classes. Meanwhile, the debate over moving to partial bricks-and-mortar learning has badly split the community, Haddad said Monday night.
“It’s very unique to find an issue this polarizing in this community,” Haddad said. “There are so many different perspectives. We receive one communication that supports a certain position and then we receive another that is very different from the next.”
The path to partial brick-and-mortar learning is paved by statistics that showed COVID-19 positivity rates are well below 5% in Boulder County while hospitalization rates are among the lowest in the Denver-metro region, said Jeff Zayach, executive director for Boulder County Public Health.
Health officials took into account recent outbreaks of the virus at the University of Colorado Boulder, Zayach said , “Our hospitalization rates have dropped and stayed consistently low, Those things are going very well.”
Haddad also has worked closely with the county health department to make careful steps toward a partial reopening of classes, Zayach said.
“When others would have wanted to go back to school, he made the decision to wait, to make sure it was safe,” Zayach said. Based on several factors, he said, "I am comfortable with ... St. Vrain moving to a hybrid approach at this point."
Elementary, middle and high school students will attend brick-and-mortar classes twice a week under the hybrid plan and conduct online learning on two other days of the week. Fridays would be reserved for completing assignments and appointments with teachers.
Every student will be required to wear masks, social distancing will be required, and hallways will be marked by arrows to control the flow of foot traffic, Haddad said. Extra cleaning crews have been hired to scrub hallways after regular custodians have come through classrooms and hallways, he said.
Families and students who still don’t want to return to classes will be offered to sign up for the district’s LaunchED virtual academy, which drew an enrollment of 2,800 students when classes began, Haddad said.
A letter to families was set to be sent Tuesday outlining the plans, as well as with information on LaunchED enrollment and meals and other details. That information, as well as an opportunity to provide feedback to the district, also is available on SVVSD's reopening plan webpage.
Teachers will continue to be tested and will have access to personal protective gear, including N-95 masks.
Counselors will be available to help students when they return to classrooms and each grade level can access curriculum for aid in adjusting to the COVID-19 environment, said Johnny Terrell, the district’s executive director of student services.
“We recognize that schools and school staff are a community and they fill a void in a student’s life,” Terrell said. “And we want to be there for our kids.”
