Some grades to return in person

Superintendent: Grades 3-5, 6, 9 will go back Oct. 20

Boulder Valley is moving up its timeline for students to return to classes in person, as well as bumping up middle schoolers from one day in person to two, Superintendent Rob Anderson announced at a Thursday school board meeting.

The new plan brings third through fifth grade, sixth grade and ninth grade students back in person Oct. 20. The rest of the middle and high school students can attend in person starting Oct. 27. Elementary students are in person four days, middle schoolers two days and high schoolers one day.

K-2 students returned four days a week to in-person classes Sept. 29.

On days when middle and high school students aren’t in person, they will follow along with the inperson classes from home. Mondays remain a “launch” day where students learn independently online, while teachers plan. Families also will continue to have the option to keep their children remote only.

“We feel like our plan is well thought out, and we’re ready to go,” Anderson said.

The district originally proposed bringing third graders back for inperson learning Oct. 20, while waiting until Nov. 10 for fourth graders and Nov. 17 for fifth graders. Most secondary students wouldn’t have returned in person until Nov. 3.

A working group, comprised mainly of teachers and district administrators plus a few parents, recommended the in-person plans, with middle and high school students attending one day a week. While middle school students now can be on campus an extra day, district officials said, keeping high schools at one day a week is needed to keep the overall numbers in the schools low.

Before proposing the current plan, the district then went school by school to determine the feasibility of the working group’s recommendations.

For the K-2 students, the district hired substitute teachers to fully staff in-person classes because of teacher health exemptions, Anderson said. The district will need to hire more substitute teachers and paraeducators when the rest of the grades are added, he said.

Another factor was health data. At Thursday’s meeting, Boulder County and Broomfield County public health officials presented updated data showing most indicators are in the “green,” while new cases are significantly down at the University of Colorado Boulder after its late September outbreak. Both health departments supported the district’s current plan.

In watching other school districts that previously brought students back in person, Anderson added, quarantines have been common, but widespread transmission in schools isn’t happening.

Boulder Valley’s safety measures for in-person learning include increased cleaning, improved ventilation, wearing masks while inside, increased hand washing, social distancing to the extent possible and keeping students in the same groups, or cohorts, throughout the school day.

At the elementary level, each class will stay together as a cohort, with up to 25 students. At the middle school, where students will attend three classes on a block schedule, students will be in a total cohort of up to 45 students, with up to 15 students in each individual class.

Students must opt in for busing, with limited busing available for elementary and middle school students. The deadline to opt in is Friday.

At high schools, which also are on a block schedule, students will be in a cohort of 24 to 32 kids, with about eight students in each individual class. High school campuses will be closed — no leaving for lunch — to maintain cohorts. Busing won’t be provided at the high school level.

The idea behind cohorts is to limit exposure, in turn limiting the number of students and staff members required to quarantine when there’s exposure to someone with a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case.

After the district announced fourth and fifth graders wouldn’t return until November — and only if logistics of classroom space and staffing allowed — many parents of those students protested, questioning the fairness of the plan.

Ashley Hood, who has a second grader and fourth grader at Lafayette Elementary, said teachers have done “a wonderful job” with remote learning. But, she said, her fourth grader still struggles with the online platform and is falling behind academically. It’s also hurting his mental health.

She said not all families can afford to hire nannies or tutors to help with remote learning, “causing a great deal of stress” for working parents.

“The younger kids need to have a priority to be back in school,” she said.

Steve Cox, who has sixth grade and eighth grade boys and lives in Boulder, said the one day a week originally was planned for middle school students wasn’t enough.

Students are struggling to understand teacher expectations through an online medium, are feeling unsuccessful and “lose faith” that it’s worth continuing to try, he said.

“I appreciate the (school) board’s focus on faster and more students,” he said, adding his sons are “very happy” with the new plan.

But others liked the school district’s more cautious approach.

Michael Behar, a freelance science writer, has a kindergarten daughter attending in person at Bear Creek Elementary and a fifth grade son attending remotely. He said a district email declaring inperson classes a success after one week felt premature.

While his daughter is “so happy” to be in person, he said, his family plans to wait longer before deciding to send their son back for in-person learning.

“We’re in a holding pattern with him,” he said.

In the meantime, he’s working with the school’s parent-teacher organization to raise about $15,000 to buy individual HEPA air filters for each classroom. The filters the district bought for it’s schoolwide HVAC systems are an improvement, but aren’t as effective as higher level filters — but the higher filtration version would overwhelm the school systems, he said.

He also wants the district to provide education to parents on the most effective face masks and to require students to stay home for at least 72 hours, not the current 24 hours, to see whether a fever subsides because fevers can come and go with COVID-19.

“I know everyone is working really hard,” he said. “I want to just go that extra mile if we can.”