by Dr. Darrin Peppard
West Grand Superintendent
Let me begin by saying thank you for all the encouragement, understanding, and support you’ve given to our staffulty during these past three plus months. As someone who has over 25 years in education, I can say first hand it has been the most difficult, challenging, and frustrating time in my career. However with that being said, it has also been powerful to see our district come together and prepare to relaunch school in August of this year. Below is an outline of our current plan for the start of the school year, August 24, 2020. We’ve spent well over a month in our planning and are excited to share with you. We have built this plan from our core values: relationships, love and trust, learning is more than just math and reading (social and emotional is important too), everyone deserves to feel safe in their learning environment, and we must respect and treat each other as human beings. Please note that we really want and need your questions and feedback on this initial plan.
West Grand will be in person, face to face learning beginning on August 24, 2020 Face to face instruction will be for every student, every day (no current plan for alternating days/weeks for cohorts) Face masks/coverings will
be worn when social distancing cannot be achieved (common areas, transportation, lunch rooms, and some classroom situations) The district will provide one face mask (reusable) to every staffulty member and every student.
Symptom checks will be done daily, during the first hour of the school day. The leadership team will do this work, allowing teachers to teach and students to learn. We have partnered with Middle Park Medical and Dr. Wisner for appropriate training.
Recess and outdoor time will be encouraged, masks will not be required while students are outside.
Use of hand sanitizer and hand washing will be frequent at all age levels
Lunch will be provided as always, with lunchroom, classrooms, and outside all as viable options
Transportation will still be provided, with out of town routes running first, in town routes second
The start date for students has been moved to August 24, allowing teachers extra time to prepare their classrooms and for necessary training
ONLINE learning – West Grand has developed our own virtual school platform (using Colorado Digital Learning Solutions). This will allow parents to keep their students at home if they choose without needing to transfer to an out of district program. This will not be what was done in the spring, this is a true online program run through our district
The district has purchased additional Chromebooks, allowing for true 1 to 1 access for grades 3 through 12. This will mean every student (3-12) will have their own device (no device sharing, no device checkout if we have to be out for a period of time). Students will need to provide their own headphones.
Athletics and activities: currently CHSSA is planning to move forward with fall sports and activities. We are awaiting their guidance and plans. We will follow their lead in this area. Middle school and pee-wee sports will follow procedures under which we are governed for high school.
If a positive test occurs with a student or staffulty member, their cohort will need to be quarantined for approximately two weeks. Learning for that cohort will transition to online, but with the same expectations we have for in-classroom learning.
The purpose of this plan is to ensure the steps are being taken to keep our students and staffulty safe. As well, these are the steps we must take to keep our schools open face to face. We are not COVID-19 experts, which is why we are partnered with Middle Park Medical and Dr. Wiser. We are, however, education experts and are very proud of the work we do and to serve the Kremmling community.
On Friday, July 17 we will hold three community meetings to take your feedback, answer questions, and to listen to your thoughts and ideas. Meetings are in the K8 cafeteria (enter through the district office) at 1pm, 4pm, and 6pm. Getting through this challenge will take all of us working together, on behalf of our community’s children. But we can do this…after all #WeAreWestGrand
