Bob Wooley
bwooley@coloradocommunitymedia.com
On Nov. 12, Jeffco Public Schools announced that grades 6-12 would move to all-remote learning beginning the following Monday, Nov. 16.
Elementary schools K-5 will move to full remote learning after the Thanksgiving break. Those students will return to their all-remote classrooms beginning Nov. 30.
Jeffco Public Schools, in consultation with Jefferson County Public Health, made the decision to end nearly all in-person learning citing the continued rise of COVID-19 cases in the community, case counts that are dwarfing the spike in cases this spring, when schools also moved to a full-remote system.
As of Nov. 15 the district has reported 558 active cases among students and staff. Fourteen Jeffco school sites, mostly high schools, have double-digit active confirmed COVID-19 cases. During a school board study session last week Interim Superintendent Kristopher Schuh said more than a dozen Jeffco schools had to already move full-remote simply because the district did not have enough staff to run schools with so many people kept home by precautionary quarantines.
"Simply put, we've now reached the point at which the benefits of in-person learning are outweighed by the disruption caused by abrupt transitions to quarantines and by the risk of COVID-19 exposures within our buildings," Schuh said in the remote learning announcement statement to the public.
The statement went on to say that students will participate in synchronous learning (logging on and participating as a class during set class times) Monday through Thursday. Fridays will be either synchronous or asynchronous, depending on the school and grade.
Classes will continue remotely until winter break, if not longer.
Preschool and district childcare programs will continue to operate in-person, as will in-person learning for students with significant disabilities.
Career and technical education programs will continue in-person learning, but programs will be evaluated to determine which require in-person learning and to what extent. Additional information on CTE programs will come directly form the schools, including Warren Tech.
