Denver Public Schools Extends Remote Learning Through Mid October

By Erica Meltzer, July 29

Denver Public Schools will hold classes remotely at least through Oct. 16, and district officials are still working with public health officials on a framework that would allow students to return to the classroom.

Denver Public Schools made the announcement Wednesday. Superintendent Susana Cordova said she understands that constantly changing plans are difficult for parents, students, teachers, and staff, and she acknowledged that remote learning doesn’t meet the needs of all students.

Cordova said the district is working on a way to bring small groups of students who most need in-person instruction and services back to school buildings sooner, possibly after Labor Day. Those could include preschool students, those with significant disabilities, and students who are in the earliest stages of learning English. However, many details still need to be worked out.

Cordova said she knows that remote learning presents major challenges for parents, especially for those of elementary students, and said the district is working to provide some child care in school buildings.

Colorado’s largest school district already had planned to hold remote classes through Sept. 8, with the school year set to start Aug. 24, a week later than originally scheduled.

In announcing the remote start earlier this month, Cordova said public health officials raised concerns about the district’s plan to return to classes full time when cases of the coronavirus are rising in the community. Public health officials also were concerned about the large numbers of interactions that would be involved in every school day, with each one raising the possibility of COVID exposure, quarantine requirements, and disruption to learning.

At that time, Cordova said district officials would assess closer to Labor Day whether classes could safely resume. This week, leaders of two Denver charter networks announced they would keep students learning online until mid-October because they did not think it was likely the public health situation would improve enough by September.

“Health models indicate we won’t reach a different conclusion in a couple of weeks,” Bill Kurtz, CEO of the DSST charter network, wrote in an email to parents explaining the decision.

Cordova said Wednesday the rate of spread in the community continues to weigh on the district’s decision-making. The district hopes to get a framework from public health officials that would guide decisions about when and how to re-open. And Cordova said it’s very likely that when students do return to school, it will be through a hybrid model that has students split into groups and attend school just a few days a week to keep class sizes smaller.

Tiffany Choi, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, the union representing teachers and special service providers, said she supports the decision to delay opening. The union wants the district to identify data-driven triggers that would determine whether it’s safe to re-open, as well as more details on safety protocols within buildings.

“We need to prioritize people’s lives and focus on quality instruction, instead of scrambling to open before the community and the schools are ready,” Choi said in a statement. “Extending remote learning allows more time to collaborate around meticulous plans for in-person re-openings.”

Around the state, teachers unions have largely opposed returning to the classroom and have raised concerns that school district health plans aren’t robust enough to protect vulnerable staff. From classrooms with poor ventilation to the challenge of enforcing mask requirements to the limitations of home health screenings, they say these plans don’t reflect realities in the classroom.

Many parents have called for a return to in-person learning, but others are just as concerned as teachers that not enough safety precautions are in place or that we don’t know enough about how transmission could occur in schools.

Nallely Antúnez Gonzalez, whose children will be entering kindergarten and second grade, said she’s of two minds about going back to school. Learning online was very challenging for her children in the spring, and she feels like they lost important skills. At the same time, she worries that young children would struggle to abide by stringent health rules and that people might get sick.

“I have mixed feelings,” she said. “It’s complicated.”

While declining to issue any new public health restrictions, Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday said rapid action is needed to slow the rate of increase of the coronavirus. While Colorado’s hospitals currently have plenty of capacity, the disease models used by the state show that intensive care units could be overwhelmed by sometime in September if the trajectory doesn’t change.

Several other Colorado districts are also planning a remote start, including Jefferson County, Aurora, Adams 14, Roaring Fork, and Pueblo 70. Other districts are planning for a full return to the classroom or a mix of online and in-person instruction that brings students to school just a few days a week to keep class sizes small and allow for more social distancing.

As in many districts, parents in Denver can choose an entirely online option or in-person instruction, which would allow students to transition to the classroom if and when they open. Enrollment opened Monday and continues through Aug. 21. Denver officials had previously said parents would be locked in through December to the choice they make at registration, but Cordova said Wednesday that parents need more information. The district will no longer hold parents to a selection they make before school starts.