Superintendents across the state received a message this month from Colorado Commissioner of Education Katy Anthes. In it, she noted the many uncertainties ahead of us as a nation and as an education community in 2021. She pledged a continued focus at the state level on the health and safety of students and staff, as well as a commitment to support schools in returning to in-person learning. Dr. Anthes alluded to additional stimulus dollars the Colorado Department of Education will receive and opportunities for district input into how that funding is allocated.

It is critical that we, and other districts, receive what the Colorado Department of Education is promising—guidance, support, and additional funding. Our district, like so many others in the state, has had to delay plans to bring students back to daily, in-person learning. And while our schools have not been identified as places of transmission, we continue to struggle to keep our hybrid schedule intact, with a dozen quarantine events in January alone.

At the January 20 Board of Health Meeting, Public Health officials presented data on rising COVID-19 cases in Routt County. Nicole Harty, Routt County Epidemiologist, said it best: “We are not moving in the right direction.” Last week’s Routt County COVID-19 Community Update pointed to household spread, social gatherings, and community spread as the biggest contributors. “The primary source of disease transmission is coming from within our own community,” Ms. Harty said. She also noted that schools are being impacted by the behaviors and activities of families over break and while students are not in the classroom. Positive cases among students who then come to class and have contact with others are necessitating quarantines.

We know that many families are eager for students to return to school on a daily schedule. Our elementary schools are gearing up for this transition, which will require our entire community to be vigilant in fighting this pandemic. Just as we may start to see case numbers in our community improve, Blues Break next month could impede any progress we make. Let’s be proactive now and plan for what we can do individually and to encourage others to slow the spread of this virus during Blues Break. These efforts will improve the chances that elementary students can move to a daily schedule and that we can maintain access to in-person learning for all students this spring.
While our challenges continue, there are many reasons to be optimistic. As of January 24, 364,819 Coloradoans had been immunized with one dose of the vaccine and 80,181 with two doses—numbers that grow every day. Teachers are next in line!

While our desire remains to have every single child in our building every day, in the short term we are focused on sustaining the hybrid learning model that has been in place since August, which puts our district far ahead of others in our state and across the nation still struggling to move out of a fully remote model after almost a year. Given the current circumstances, we feel fortunate to have as much in-person learning as we do right now and remain hopeful that we can offer even more in the months ahead.