{"id":52596,"date":"2020-07-22T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T01:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-schools-release-plan-for-reopening\/"},"modified":"2020-07-23T01:31:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T01:31:31","slug":"bayfield-schools-release-plan-for-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-schools-release-plan-for-reopening\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield schools release plan for reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Bayfield School District released its reopening draft plan Wednesday with a survey attached for public comment. The plan outlines how the district will reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Bayfield School District released a draft of its reopening plan for the first time Wednesday, a day after a school board meeting that drew 100 people and comments from almost 20 concerned parents and staff members.<\/p>\n

The draft includes two learning options for students, online or in-person, during the coronavirus pandemic. The school board also considered a delayed start for in-person learning. Teachers called for more options than just in-person teaching and asked about sick days and safety provisions. Community members wanted to know plans for students with special needs and mask requirements.<\/p>\n

The district released its plan with a survey attached<\/a> Wednesday to gather public comment before finalizing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like options for staff and students to return \u2026 so no teacher and no family or student has to leave a district they call home and love,\u201d said Madeline Shea, a primary school teacher.<\/p>\n

Bayfield released its draft plan after Durango and Ignacio school districts. Durango<\/a> offers three learning models, in-person, remote-only and a mixture of the two. Ignacio<\/a> asked parents to choose between in-person and online schooling.<\/p>\n

The meeting setup was mostly virtual, another COVID-related adaptation. Teachers and parents spoke via a video-sharing platform. Board and staff members met in person, wearing masks and social distancing.<\/p>\n

The Bayfield School Board discussed a one-week delay for in-person learning, starting Aug. 24. The board will vote on the idea Tuesday. Online learning would start as scheduled Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

Parents share concerns<\/div>\n

During the public comment period, some parents were concerned about mask requirements in schools. They asked about medical exemptions, provisions for children with special needs and challenges with online education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need my child who is going into second grade to be educated properly,\u201d said Janelle Farnam, a single-parent who works full time. \u201cEarly childhood education is vital to our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Colorado\u2019s mandatory face-covering law, people, ages 11 and older, are required to wear masks in public and private indoor settings. Some exceptions apply, including for people who are medically intolerant of masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople said, for very good reasons, we don\u2019t think we should wear masks. The governor\u2019s executive order settled that issue,\u201d said Kevin Aten in an interview Wednesday. \u201cWould we turn a high school student away if we didn\u2019t have a mask in the morning? The answer is yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bayfield schools, face coverings are required for staff members and older students. Occasionally, district leaders at Tuesday\u2019s board meeting would remove their masks when speaking, contrary to their instructions for the district.<\/p>\n

Masks are optional for kindergarten through fifth grade. While that might be a relief to some parents, primary school teachers expressed concerns, saying their classrooms were like \u201cgerm factories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese classrooms are petri dishes,\u201d said Anthony Maestes, a parent. \u201cMy son, when he was in kindergarten, I\u2019m pretty sure my son puked on his teacher. Then he was crying on her shoulder. It\u2019s gross, and that\u2019s what kindergarten teachers have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nate
Nate Johnson, Bayfield Primary School custodian, takes stock of the school&#x2019;s cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment Wednesday ahead of the district&#x2019;s reopening in August. The Bayfield School District released a draft of its reopening plan Wednesday for public comment.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Teachers want options<\/div>\n

Teachers wanted more information about safety measures, small-group on-site learning, sick days and options to teach from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI plan on teaching here for 15 or 20 years. I don\u2019t want to leave the district because I\u2019m forced into a classroom,\u201d said Aaron Wamsley, a second grade teacher.<\/p>\n

Teachers will return for in-person learning only, Aten said. The school district is not considering changes to health, sick day or leave-of-absence policies. It has absorbed some insurance costs, given staff members a raise and provided 88 hours of paid leave \u2013 more than is federally required, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve really done our part to support teachers, and we want them back in the classroom,\u201d he said. \u201cOur goal is to resume school and in-person learning as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district will provide accommodations based on the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is not legally required to provide accommodations for staff members concerned about the health of someone else, like a family member.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are brutal, hard, adult choices,\u201d Aten said. \u201cThe law is very clear. \u2026 At some point, we all have to make those hard choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District considering delayed start, multiple learning options<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,2766,685,29,668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-bayfield-school-district","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-newsletter","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52596","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=52596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52596"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}