Sara Sandstrom-Kobi, Nederland. A special Boulder Valley School District Board of Education meeting was held on August 4, 2020. BVSD Superintendent Dr. Rob Anderson and his leadership team are recommending to the Board that schools open on August 26 in Phase 1.

Phase 1 means all students will be participating in on-line learning (Home Learning). All BVSD school buildings will be closed, and there will be no transportation. There will be food service for certain families and there will be limited high school athletic training. 

These decisions are not made lightly. The decisions have been made by looking at Covid health data with county and state health departments, students opt-out data and employee exemption data. Dr. Anderson said, “The shelf life of information if very short” and they have been working very closely with public health officials when making this huge decision to move back to Phase 1. 

During the virtual meeting it was made clear that the district leadership teams have made great improvements to Home Learning. Teachers will be trained and get the support they need to make Home Learning a better system than it was in the spring. It will be more planned and consistent. Pre-school through third graders will be using Seesaw and fourth grade through twelfth grade will be using Schoology as their online platforms.

Dr. Anderson and board members voiced great concern for the youngest students in our schools and how this will affect their education as they are just learning to read and write. 

The district will continue to reevaluate the health situation and there will be an update on September 22 to inform the school community if we can move into a different Phase. It all depends on what the data says. 

At this point the principals in each building will inform families of how each school will execute Phase 1. Nederland principals Caleb Melamed and Rick Elertson will send out a detailed parent update on Friday, August 14, 2020. 

There are so many moving parts and logistical challenges for every school and every school district in the country. Mountains are being moved to make school the most effective it can be while in a pandemic. 

Boulder Valley School District will open the 2020-21 school year in Phase 1. You can go to www.bvsd.org for more information on Phase 1 and if you are part of the Nederland school community look for information from the principals on August 14. 

(Originally published in the August 6, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)