December 30, 2020
Dear DCSD Community,
I hope you are enjoying the winter break and finding time to connect with family and friends. I am reaching out with an update in regard to our second semester plans.
Our plan for preschool, elementary and our most impacted/at-risk students in center-based programs at the middle and high school levels remains the same.
Preschool and elementary will return to in-person learning five days a week, beginning on Tuesday, January 5, with center-based programming students at the middle and high school levels returning that same day to in-person learning four days a week. DCSD School Leadership will work closely with our principals and teachers during the first few weeks of January to monitor the return of our preschool and elementary students to ensure we can sustain operations, in preparation for the return of middle and high school students.
We continue to closely monitor the data and our community incident rate per 100,000 people is at approximately 400. This is great news - way to go, Douglas County! As a result of this, we are evaluating a plan for an earlier return for our secondary students.
Middle and high school students will return to full remote learning on Tuesday, January 5.
We will continue to closely watch our operational sustainability and our COVID-19 data. If we stay in the current range, we hope to welcome our middle and high school students back to hybrid learning at the same time. We are planning for a potential earlier return to hybrid learning for both middle and high school, possibly by the end of January. We will continue to look at all other learning options for our secondary students, but as of now, we are planning for a transition to hybrid in-person instruction and can evaluate this as we move forward.
Our plan for second semester will be discussed further at the next DCSD Board of Education meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, January 5. You can watch the meeting, which begins at 5:00 p.m., on our
YouTube channel. If your child attends a DCSD charter school, please check in with your school on second semester plans.
If we have learned one thing from COVID-19, it is that we need to be flexible with our plans and know that anything can change, based on current circumstances. We are monitoring the news about a case involving the coronavirus variant in Elbert County, as reported by local media and health agencies.
Additionally, Governor Polis announced today that the state is moving to
Phase 1B of its COVID-19 vaccine priority plan - and this phase now also includes teachers. We deeply value our educators and want them to have priority access to vaccinations, so this is good news. We know that when our teachers get sick or are put into quarantine, sustaining in-person school becomes incredibly difficult. When a school shuts down and transitions to remote learning due to a high number of staff absences, we are all impacted - for example, working parents scramble to support their children, while balancing work demands. Giving our teachers priority access to COVID-19 vaccinations protects not only our educators - but our students, their families, and our future.
I appreciate your patience as we continue to closely monitor all developments, modify our plans and work to get our students back in school.
Sincerely,
Corey Wise
Interim Superintendent
Douglas County School District