{"id":45443,"date":"2021-08-03T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T03:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-parents-await-word-on-protocol-for-new-school-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:25:29","slug":"cortez-parents-await-word-on-protocol-for-new-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-parents-await-word-on-protocol-for-new-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez parents await word on protocol for new school year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Montezuma-Cortez School District is hosting a family night in April. (Journal file photo)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

With less than two weeks until Aug. 16, the first day of the 2021-22 school year, families are wondering what their children\u2019s upcoming fall semester will look like after more than a year of COVID-19 disruptions.<\/p>\n

A Montezuma Cortez RE-1 School District work session takes place tonight. The meeting may provide details regarding pandemic precautions.<\/p>\n

Some parents have been left to reflect about their children\u2019s return to in-person learning.<\/p>\n

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all students over the age of 2 who haven\u2019t been fully vaccinated should wear masks while indoors, and maintain a distance of 3 feet from one another.<\/p>\n

However, many children under the age of 12 are not eligible for full vaccination.<\/p>\n

On July 9, the CDC amended its guidelines for K-12 education. The suggestions stated that schools with unvaccinated students should practice distancing, but no student should be barred from in-person classes if social distancing is not possible.<\/p>\n

Then, on Friday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment adopted more recent CDC recommendations that everyone in a school setting wear a mask. However, school districts may set their own policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want children to be back at school and as safe as possible,\u201d said State Epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy in a news release obtained by Chalkbeat<\/a>. \u201cMasks are an added layer of protection, as we hope that even more children ages 12+ will get vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a verified email obtained by Chalkbeat, masks will be \u201crequired inside school buildings for all Denver students, staff and visitors, whether they\u2019re vaccinated or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

How closely local schools will follow CDC guidelines remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Marie Sage\u2019s child is starting fourth grade at Battle Rock Charter School this month, but she said she has not heard how the school will address the pandemic yet \u2014 or whether students will wear masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe age they are \u2014 I just don\u2019t think they need to be wearing them all day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sage said she\u2019s been actively looking out for guidelines from the school, and has checked the institution\u2019s Facebook page. But with school starting in fewer than two weeks, she still feels in the dark.<\/p>\n

Another local mother with students enrolled in the district, who prefers not to be named, has concerns about masks not being required at school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have an infant at home who obviously cannot fight off viruses like older kids can,\u201d she said. \u201cSecond, a lot of kids struggled with remote learning, and I worry Cortez schools will be shut down for outbreaks due to not masking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother of three said she understands that kids are not always the biggest fans of consistently wearing masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely am not angry at the school decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That awareness does not stop her from having reservations about the coming school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really understand how it isn\u2019t a huge liability for our school systems to go against CDC recommendations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another parent, Ashton Baker, has received mixed signals from her child\u2019s school. Her second grader at Mesa Elementary will ride the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got a call from the school today about it and (the school representative) said they weren\u2019t currently enforcing masks on the bus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, the representative she spoke to told her this would likely shift within the next few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said she assumed if they were being made to wear masks on the bus they most likely would be in school as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hannah-Nyibol Deng Bior, a special education teacher in Dolores, also said she wasn\u2019t whether masks will be required in her district, Re-4A.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe the hybrid model was effective, not for the majority who prefer learning in-person,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"Superintendent
Superintendent Risha VanderWey<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Superintendent Risha VanderWey could not be reached Tuesday for immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Classroom procedures regarding COVID-19 may develop with instruction from Gov. Polis and school district decisions regarding the delta variant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

tonight\u2019s board work session, parents still unsure whether students will be required to wear masks <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86497,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45443\/revisions\/86497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45443"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}