District 49 goes remote for fall semester; other districts consider options

FALCON, Colo. (KRDO) — This week, 35 students and staff in Falcon School District 49 tested positive for COVID-19, shutting down in-person learning at five schools.

“Surging infection cases from the community flow into our schools, creating quarantines that deplete our on-site staff, and in-person learning shuts down,” said D49 chief education officer Peter Hilts. “Our schools are losing stability, and community conditions are beginning to compromise safety.” 

D49 will switch to remote learning for the remainder of the fall semester beginning Monday, November 9. District leaders say they don't want to revert back to remote learning, but feel it's the safest option.

Meanwhile, Pueblo School District 70 is holding out hope its students can stay in school. However, D70 warns parents to prepare for a remote learning switch as well.

“We wanted to make sure that parents are fully aware…coming up here in the next couple of weeks, should those case numbers keep going up, that there’s a possibility we could have to transition back to remote learning,” said Todd Seip, public information officer for District 70.

Seip says contact tracing shows COVID-19 has not spread within the district. But drastic measures may have prevented that. 

“We’ve had, in the last several weeks, we’ve had to shut down entire schools because of exposure to large amounts of staff or students,” Seip said. "We're running out of substitute teachers right now and we just can't safely staff some of those schools."

According to Academy School District 20 spokesperson Allison Cortez, ASD20 is asking principals and staff how they feel about sending kids home. No changes are in the works just yet.