September 7, 2021

Dear
DCSD Families,

I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Labor Day weekend.

As you know, last Wednesday the Tri-County Health Department implemented a new Public Health Order requiring facial coverings to be worn by all individuals age 2 years and older, regardless of vaccination status, in all school and child care settings. I want to thank our families, especially those of our 7th-12th graders who made the quick transition to mask-wearing last week.

At this time, the Tri-County Health Department has public health jurisdiction over DCSD, as such, DCSD is obligated to follow the mask-wearing requirement under the Public Health Order.

We recognize there is a lot of conflicting information out there about the contract between the Tri-County Health Department and the Douglas County Board of Commissioners. Although the Board of Commissioners have publicly stated they are moving to separate from Tri-County Health, the contract between those entities is currently still in place and the Public Health Order is still in effect. Given that the Tri-County Health Department presently has the legal authority to issue Public Health Orders, DCSD is obligated to follow their mask-wearing requirement.

Over the summer we certainly could not have predicted that we would be back to a place where masks were required in schools once again. This was not our desired state. However, if we reflect on where we were a year ago, we have still come a long way. Last year our students were not only wearing masks, but were in and out of in-person learning due to multiple quarantines. In addition, schools and grade levels were transitioned from in-person, to hybrid, to remote learning and back again. Events such as athletics, student performances, dances, etc. were postponed or even cancelled. It was a stressful time for students, families and staff with a lot of unknowns and uncertainties about what learning platform students would be in from day to day. It seemed everything was dependent upon the quarantines, exposures and COVID data.

We started off this school year pretty close to a pre-COVID normal. Students have been able to be in the classroom with their friends and educators. Events such as athletics, dances, student performances, fundraisers, etc. have been able to occur. Visitors are once again welcome in school buildings and parents are once again able to attend Back to School nights, PTO meetings, etc.

We have heard some unfortunate stories about students and visitors refusing to wear face coverings in buildings. As the Public Health Order is new our school leaders and teachers are doing their best to remind and educate about the need for face coverings. It is expected that students and visitors will wear their face coverings indoors as required by the Public Health Order.



Face Coverings for Students

Mask wearing will be required indoors and managed in a developmentally appropriate manner (we will have different expectations for two-year-old students compared to middle school students). We will work with families to address medical exemptions.  



If a student refuses to wear a face covering, and does not have a signed medical exemption from mask wearing, we will have no choice but to implement stricter enforcement of the Public Health Order in our schools. Enforcement includes school-based consequences in alignment with the DCSD Student Code of Conduct. Continued refusal to comply with mask requirements could result in a student being transferred to remote learning.



Face Coverings for Visitors

It is expected that any visitors to DCSD school buildings (including parents/guardians) wear a mask while inside the building. Should a visitor refuse to wear a mask, they will not be permitted in the building.



Why is DCSD Taking Mask-Wearing So Seriously?

When we have students, staff or visitors in buildings without face coverings we risk increasing COVID exposures in our schools. Should an outbreak occur in a school, the Tri-County Health Department could direct DCSD to quarantine or move to remote learning a class, team, grade level or even entire school. Wearing a face covering is the one thing students of all ages can do to help prevent a wide-spread quarantine. Students ages 12 and over can also access the COVID vaccine to help further prevent outbreaks and wide-spread quarantines.



It remains important that we do everything in our power to limit the number of positive COVID cases in our schools and keep our students in in-person learning. By following the Public Health Order, continuing to implement our layered COVID mitigation protocols (including mask-wearing indoors), and increasing the number of fully vaccinated people in our community, we hope to avoid going back to the worst case scenarios that we experienced last year. We are also hopeful that if we follow the Public Health Order, the Tri-County Health Department will allow the Order to be amended or lifted by the December 31, 2021 expiration date, if not sooner.



We empathize with the varying emotions regarding COVID mitigation protocols in our schools. However, as we have previously communicated, our goal is to keep our students and staff safe and in the classroom for in-person learning. I ask and encourage each of us to step up and come together to follow this new Public Health Order. I know that together, we can keep our students in the classroom where they have the best access to a high-quality education, as well as critical social and emotional resources.



Sincerely,


Corey Wise

Superintendent

Douglas County School District

Quoted:
I was listening to Ross Kaminsky this morning on my drive to work and he was talking about this year's elections.  Specifically the school board races, of which there are a lot this year.  The moderate districts are going to be the critical ones this year.  He pointed out an article in the Federalist about Falcon school district 49 (northeast of Colorado Springs) was able to get CRT teaching banned in the school district partly due to its newly elected board director Ivy Lieu. The article is a good one and points out the measure barely passed 3-2 in a conservative voting area.

Here's the article:
https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/26/coloradan-explains-how-she-helped-ban-crt-in-her-local-schools/

I've more or less written off Colorado as a lost cause, but as long as I'm still living in Colorado, I still need to fight for it.  Since this year is an off election year, the school board races will be the most important.

Anyhoo, I'm in Douglas County and it looks like they've already put together a slate to take on the teachers union.
Becky Myers
Kaylee Winegar
Christy Williams
Mike Peterson
https://kidsfirstdcsd.com/

Quoted:

@Autarkus do you have any info on the D3 school board candidates?  I’ve seen plenty of signs for I’ve when I’ve been running errands hopefully she can pull off re-election.

Quoted:


@LuannePlatter

I'm not sure which district is D3.  Widefield? This might be a good starting point... https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_school_board_elections,_2021

Here's the Widefield Ballotpedia: https://ballotpedia.org/Widefield_School_District_3,_Colorado,_elections_(2021)

And the candidates there.
David Dock (Nonpartisan)

Gregory Fisher (Nonpartisan)

Dolly Handel (Nonpartisan)

Brenda Miller (Nonpartisan)

Marie Dale Peterson-Henderson (Nonpartisan)

Yevgeniya Tsyganok (Nonpartisan)

Susan Waller (Nonpartisan)

Donna Walsh (Nonpartisan)

I usually search their names (once I figure out who's on the ballot), the school board name, and the election year.  It usually helps if there's a slate running in a given district, but it doesn't always work out that way.  Douglas County happens to have 4 candidates running as a slate this year.  The next easiest thing to look for is searching who is and isn't endorsed by the teacher unions.