Good Afternoon, D11 Families,

Return to Learn, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021
We are very excited to welcome students back to the classroom and our schools on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. As a reminder, elementary students will return to in-person learning on Tuesdays through Fridays, and middle and high school students will return to the hybrid schedules on Tuesdays through Fridays. Mondays will remain an asynchronous learning day for all D11 students through the rest of this school year. Families who choose to have students continue with remote and online learning will still have this option this semester. Please watch for schedules and details to come from your child’s school.

COVID Information
As you may know, our county is now in a level orange on the statewide COVID health dial. D11 continues to work very closely with our health partners, both at El Paso County Public Health, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Updated quarantining procedures will allow our district to get staff and students back in class sooner than previous procedures. Additionally, our district is actively pursuing the State’s program to receive rapid COVID tests, as a result of the recommendation from the Governor’s back-to-school task force. The hope is that by identifying positive cases more quickly, those people may isolate before they expose others, reducing the number of people who have to quarantine, as well as reducing the risk of transmission. As always, you may review the District’s Return to Learn plan and cleaning procedures at www.d11.org/returntolearn.

Inclement Weather Information
As we return, we would also like to remind families during bad weather, to please check your preferred news or alert source frequently. School closures, e-learning days, full cancellations, late starts and early releases may be implemented in the event of adverse weather. D11 will communicate the decisions as early as possible, considering all factors used to make these decisions. There may be times when e-learning days are called so D11 students may fulfill the educational time requirements set by the State. All announcements will include the type of decision made. You may learn more by clicking here.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing students on Tuesday!

Dear D11 Families,

As we end the first semester of this school year, I’d like to share the plan to bring students back for in-person learning during the second semester. It has always been our desire to have students back in our classrooms and schools, but we want to do so in the safest way possible. Planning our return in January, D11 has participated in many discussions with other Pikes Peak area school districts and El Paso County Public Health (EPCPH) officials. Based on the recommendations of EPCPH, we have decided it is strategic and appropriate to follow this timeline:

January 6: All students return to learning remotely

January 19: All students return to school
   *Elementary students will return to 100% in-person learning
   *Secondary students will resume a hybrid schedule
   *Online students will continue with their online classes.
**Mondays will be asynchronous learning days for all grade levels. (Schools will send more detailed schedules).

This timeline will be flexible and dependent on changes to our county’s color dial and recommendations from El Paso County Public Health. We want to have a plan that is sustainable so all students may return and stay in school. We encourage all families to celebrate the holidays in a safe manner that will support our ability to return to school.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to our staff, students, and families for adapting to the hardships the COVID-19 pandemic has created. Thank you for your continued patience as we navigate the remainder of this school year together.

Yours in Partnership, 
Dr. Michael J. Thomas, Superintendent
Colorado Springs School District 11

Dear D11 Families,

As COVID-19 continues to surge throughout our region and the State, we have no choice but to move into a district-wide remote instructional model. With an increasing rate of transmission, along with staff and students who have either tested positive or are now in quarantine, it has become unsustainable for us to continue in our hybrid and in-person models. Our goal has been to provide a safe and successful in-person instructional model. Sadly though, we have been experiencing a significant increase in staff and student quarantines and we simply don’t have enough staff or substitutes to keep our schools open for in-person learning much longer.

With multiple new positive COVID-19 cases and school quarantines just over the past few days, our school district has reached a tipping point and we are making the very difficult decision to shift to remote learning beginning right after the Thanksgiving break until the winter break, returning to in-person learning at the beginning of the second semester (January 6 for students to return in person, staff returns January 4, 2021).

Our intention at this point is to return to in-person learning at the beginning of the second semester. We will continue to monitor the health and wellbeing, as best we can, for those in our district and community. If the situation does not improve, a decision to extend remote learning will need to be made closer to the start of the second semester. Your small acts, and those of our community during this duration will impact the District’s ability to return to the hybrid and in-person instructional models.

Rationale for this decision:
•    High positivity rate in our community as reported by El Paso County Public Health.
•    Increasing positivity rate within School District 11. Where we only had 43 cases in the first nine weeks of school, we’ve had 63 cases in the past 14 days (see www.d11.org/coviddashboard).
•    High number of students and staff in quarantine with every school impacted due to school-related and non-school-related exposures.
•    The challenge to adequately staff buildings, bus routes, and the other essential roles in our district.

We are giving families and staff this notice to help prepare the logistics:
•    Students need to bring home district-issued technology devices and necessary personal items (winter wear, etc.) by November 20, 2020.
•    Watch for an email from your school principal with school-related logistics. 
•    For schools already in full remote learning, your school(s) will work with you to coordinate pick up for any personal items and/or necessary technology pick up.

We are thankful our district has had some time to conduct hybrid and in-person learning. Families have been flexible when a class or grade-level needed to go remote due to quarantines. We recognize the move to remote learning causes logistical issues for families and is less ideal than in-person learning.

Additional Technology Internet Resource
District 11 is excited to announce an opportunity for over 1,600 families to use a hotspot with free internet service through T-Mobile.  T-Mobile’s Project 10Million provided District 11 FREE mobile hotspots with 100GB of data per year for up to five years.  Each hotspot includes a content filter that is compliant with the Child Internet Protection Act.  T-Mobile is working with school districts across the country and has more information posted on their website at this LINK.  Parents must opt into this opportunity by completing this FORM or by contacting their school.   Student and family information will be kept confidential.  District 11 plans to begin checkout of these devices in the coming weeks with priority given to households with the greatest need.  If you have any questions, you may email kathy.new@d11.org.

Food Service
District 11 is committed to the health and wellness of our students during this time.  Curbside grab and go meals will still be available from 11:00am to 12:30pm at select school sites for breakfasts and lunches.  Please contact your child’s school or visit the D11 website for details.

We knew going into this school year that each of us would need to adapt as the situation surrounding COVID-19 evolves and we receive further guidance from the State and local health officials. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and collaboration during these unprecedented times. Please continue to check email for more information from building principals and teachers.

Yours in Partnership,

Dr. Michael J. Thomas, Superintendent
Colorado Springs School District 11

In order to provide additional security features for District 11 students and staff in virtual meetings, changes were made restricting Webex personal room meetings to District 11 students and staff. In addition, virtual meetings may be scheduled by teachers in Schoology, which restricts access to only students and staff in the course.

Please note these important changes:

• Schoology meetings and personal meeting rooms require a district network account for all attendees.
• Scheduled Webex meetings do not require a district network account.  Attendees who don’t have a network account must be admitted by the host.
• Student accounts have attendee only permissions in all meetings.
• Students who join a meeting in Schoology must be logged into Webex.  We recommend students login at cssd11.webex.com before joining any meetings scheduled in Schoology. Once the student is logged into Webex they may join any meeting in Schoology until they logout or their Webex meeting account is idle for over one hour.

Important Information for Students:

Students must log into Webex when joining ANY meeting.

Meetings scheduled in Schoology will require the student to login to Webex AND Schoology in order to join the class.

Please click HERE for a short video for additional instructions.

Implementing these changes will enable the District to provide a more secure virtual teaching environment for all students.  Please check with your child’s teacher or school if you need specific information regarding their virtual class time.  We have also posted additional information at this LINK.

Good Afternoon, D11 Families & Staff,

You may have seen the news today from El Paso County Public Health that the State will be moving El Paso County to the Safer at Home Level 2 on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020. This is in response to rising COVID-19 rates in our county. This move will not impact D11, as the guidance under this level allows for preschool through 12th grades to remain in-person, hybrid, and/or remote as appropriate. 

D11 students and staff will continue to observe the safety protocols of mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing and hand sanitizing, daily health screens for staff and, whenever possible, will make use of virtual training and meetings as opposed to in-person. We will also continue to work closely with our local health officials for guidance and frequent updates. El Paso County Public Health is supportive of our efforts to keep schools open.

Please know, we will strive to give families as much notice as possible if significantly more restrictive measures are put into place, aiming for as much as two weeks’ notice. In the meantime, you may view the County’s COVID-10 Dial Framework by clicking here.

We are committed to the safety of students and staff. As you may be aware, our preventative efforts in D11 are helping to address COVID-19 cases in our district. Since July, our infection rate is less than one percent, which is significantly better than our county’s. All cases have come from outside of the District with no transmission in our schools. For full transparency, we also created our own COVID-19 dashboard for each school site so our community can stay informed about quarantines, positive cases, etc. You can find this information here www.d11.org/coviddashboard.

Thank you.

In an effort to keep transparent lines of communication open with our community, we are excited to announce a new COVID reporting dashboard located at https://www.d11.org/coviddashboard. On the dashboard, families, students, staff and community members may see the total confirmed cases, cases by grade level, locations with confirmed cases, and whether a school is currently on an in-person, remote, or partially in-person status. Thank you.

Dear D11 Middle School Families,

Due to the number of middle school students and staff district-wide in quarantine as a result of COVID related illnesses, District 11 will be suspending middle school boys track and field until further notice.  Also, we will not start middle school girls' volleyball on October 20 as originally planned.  Our goal remains to offer as many middle school athletic opportunities, but due to the current circumstances, the District will need to pause on plans.  Schools will be in contact with families in the near future to discuss refund procedures for students who’ve paid their participation fee for boys’ track.  As plans are finalized, we will communicate them with our families.

Respectfully,

Christopher A. Noll,  MA, CAA
Director Of Athletics, Activities,
And Physical Education

Dear D11 High School Families,

We are excited to announce D11 traditional high schools (Coronado, Doherty, Palmer and Mitchell) will be ready to welcome the in-person learners next week.  Please know our high schools (in addition to having our elementary and middle schools ready the previous week) are ready for the increased capacity of both staff and students, meeting building code ventilation standards.

Many have asked why it took so long to get our schools ready.  Please remember ventilation is outside air exchanges into and out of the building.  It is not about air-conditioning. The District started working on improving ventilation this summer once guidance started being released about the importance of ventilation in protecting individuals.  District 11 is an older district (most of our schools are over 50 years old) with a backlog of needed capital improvements (over $700 million).  This summer's heatwave (one of the hottest Augusts on record) further complicated efforts by requiring the District to respond to work orders related to the heatwave at the same time as work was taking place to improve air exchanges.  This was even more complicated by the delay in parts as other organizations across the country were trying to perform the same procedures. 

D11 has diligently worked building by building by building, one air handling unit at a time, to ensure the ventilation systems are in proper working order to protect our staff and students.  We are proud of the fact that D11 was more diligent than most other districts in improving the ventilation systems.  We look forward to the return of in-person learning at all high schools next week. Please watch for scheduling details from your child's school. Thank you.

Dear D11 High School Families,

Due to a reassessment of the District’s ventilation situation at all D11 high schools, the District will need to delay the in-person learning start by one week, to the week of October 5th at all traditional D11 high schools (Coronado, Doherty, Mitchell, and Palmer).

After a thorough assessment of the situation, it’s been determined the traditional high schools will not have sufficient ventilation in the majority of rooms to allow for in-person learning to start next week as planned. At this point in time, most facility staff members are working overtime on the issue and external contractors are also working overtime on the systems.  The District is doing everything possible to get these systems fixed properly, as soon as possible.

The Roy J. Wasson academic campus has proper ventilation and it is safe for in person learning to resume at that campus as scheduled for next week.

We realize this is not an ideal situation.  However, please be assured that this decision was made with the safety of our students and staff as our top priority. We thank you for your continued patience and support.

We wanted to make you aware of some updated resources on the D11 Return to Learn website (www.d11.org/returntolearn).

The Return to Learn plan has been revised and contains the basic information for the return to in-person learning starting September 21 for elementary and middle school students, and starting September 29 for high school students. More details will come from your school next week. Families still have the choice of having their child(ren) return to in-person learning, or continue with remote learning. If you haven't taken the survey to let your school staff know your intentions, you may click here to complete it.

The following are new links to the Return to Learn website:
"Can I go to School Today? At Home Symptom Screening for Families"
"COVID-19 Child/Staff Symptom Flow Chart"
"El Paso County Public Health Data & Analytics"

We encourage you to visit the www.d11.org/returntolearn website frequently for updates, resources, and helpful information. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

We have exciting news about Webex Meetings.  Cisco has updated the user interface to a simpler format with easier meeting controls.  The update is scheduled to be completed by Tuesday morning, 9/8.  Some of the new features include:

Meeting Preview Window for audio and video

• Clear and Easy-To-Find Meeting Controls
• Audio and Video buttons permanently displayed below meeting window
• Participant and Chat buttons displayed at bottom right of screen
  
• Basic meeting information available in top left of screen
  
• Virtual Backgrounds – Cisco provides several options and attendees can upload their own.  (Note-Backgrounds do require additional computer resources and can cause issues with audio and video quality when used.)

We hope that the new interface helps to simplify your student’s participation in class and provides the additional features for a more rich engagement.

Thank you,

Colorado Springs School District 11
Technology Services Division

Hello D11 Families,

As we end the second week of this school year, I’d like to share some of the discussions from this week as we move forward with planning to bring students back for in-person learning. It has always been our desire to have students back in our classrooms and schools, but we want to do so in the safest way possible. We continue to monitor the health data across El Paso County and our state and are encouraged by the downward trending transmission of the spread of COVID 19 in our community. You may view the El Paso County data by clicking here. Based on this data, we are moving forward with plans to bring students back in-person. Should this data start to show any discouraging trends of increased positive cases and more spread of the virus, we will revise the plans accordingly.

What are the plans?

We will plan to bring elementary and middle school students back in-person on a staggered timeline (see details below) starting September 21. Elementary and middle schools will maintain regular school hours. For high school students, we will begin bringing students back in-person starting September 29 on a staggered timeline. Details on high school in-person return schedules will follow next week. Families still have the choice to keep students on a remote learning model. Please see the details and survey link below.

What are the next steps?
 
Elementary Timeline:

9/21/20: Kindergartners return to in-person learning and continue to attend the rest of the week.
9/22/20: First graders return to in-person learning and continue to attend the rest of the week.
9/23/20: Second graders return to in-person learning and continue to attend the rest of the week.
9/24/20: Third graders return to in-person learning and continue to attend the rest of the week.
9/25/20: Fourth and fifth graders return to in-person learning.
 
Middle School Timeline:

• Mondays will be used for asynchronous learning for all students; Staff will have PLC time.
• Tuesdays-Fridays will be a hybrid learning schedule, with approximately half of the students in attendance each day, and the other half remote.  Schools will communicate their specific schedules with families.
• Normal school day start and finish times will be implemented, with normal transportation and meal schedules.
• Returning to in-person learning the week of September 21:
  • 9/21 (Monday): asynchronous learning for all students;
  • 9/22 and 23: 6th grade only on hybrid schedule, 7th and 8th grades remotely learning;
  • 9/24 and 25: 6th, 7th, and 8th on hybrid learning schedules, specifics will be communicated by each school.

We need to hear from you! Please complete the survey located at this link to indicate if your child(ren) will return to in-person learning, or if they will remain in the Inspire Online remote learning option (Note: preschool families do not have to take this survey). Families are asked to complete their decision form by September 9. Students in the Inspire Online learning option will still be tied to their school, however depending on enrollment numbers, they may or may not maintain their current teacher(s).

Thank you for your continued patience as we develop the best plans possible for in-person and remote learning. Through our strong relationships with our families, we will adapt and provide exemplary instruction to Inspire Every Mind! I hope you and your family have a nice, relaxing Labor Day Weekend.

Yours in Partnership,

Dr. Michael J. Thomas, Superintendent
Colorado Springs School District 11

Colorado Springs School District 11 In-Person Learning Update

Colorado Springs School District 11 continues to monitor the health data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and El Paso County Public Health and Environment (EPCPHE). Thankfully, data is starting to show favorable COVID trends in our community that may help as the District continues to plan for students returning to the classroom. At last night’s D11 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Thomas mentioned a possible staggered in-person start as early as September.

Tentatively starting in mid-September, and dependent on the health data holding positive trends, the District would begin to bring back elementary students to schools in-person, five days per week. Middle school students would be brought back in-person also five days per week on the planned block schedule as stated in the D11 Return to Learn plan, and high school students on the hybrid model (also stated in the Return to Learn plan). D11 would continue to offer an online, remote learning environment for the families who choose this option. More details will be discussed at the September 9 regular Board of Education meeting, at 4 p.m. That meeting may be viewed live at www.d11.org/tv. 

The District continues to monitor the circumstances and environmental safety levels for students and staff. It has always been the desire of the Board and the District to bring students back to in-person learning, and it is hopeful these positive trends will alow the District to do so sooner than anticipated.

Dear D11 Families and Staff,

After an in-depth discussion with the Board of Education tonight, it has been determined that D11 will be starting the school year on Aug. 24 with a hybrid model, targeting students with the greatest academic need for levels of in-school support. The remainder of our students will be engaged in our remote learning platform, Inspire Online. By default, all students will be automatically enrolled in the Inspire Online program for the first quarter.

We will continue this schedule through the first quarter of the academic school year, ending October 15 for students, at which time we will review current health data and district readiness to invite all of our students back in person for the second quarter. Those who choose to remain in the Inspire Online option for second quarter will continue to receive online instruction. If you’ve already enrolled your child in the Inspire Online program and anticipate wanting to remain online for the semester, no other action is needed.

This decision was very challenging to make. We are fully aware that making the decision to open in a more remote fashion and/or returning at full capacity impacts our community either way, but in an effort to ensure the greatest safety for our students and staff, we felt the targeted hybrid approach was most appropriate.

Understandably, we have student populations who will still need in-person services and supports that are not feasible to accomplish in an all remote learning environment, specifically students receiving special education support, English Language Learners, TITLE/Read Act supported students, and preschool students (who, under current guidance, are classified as essential childcare). Additionally, there may be other programmatic needs requiring school access, such as AP, IB, and CTE courses that will require laboratory time as part of programmatic requirements. These areas are where some hybrid options will be built into schedules at the individual school level.

We will share more details with our community soon about how our hybrid/remote learning model will work. We strongly believe in-person learning has significant benefits for students, not only academically, but also for social-emotional development and overall health and well-being. The desire of the District’s Board of Education and leadership teams is to return to in-person learning as much as is safely possible and as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued patience as we navigate the start to an unprecedented school year.

With many of our students now returning to learn remotely at the beginning of this school year, and with limited access to buildings for special populations of students, we are happy to announce D11 will be providing a device for all students. Thanks to CARES Act stimulus funding, each student in District 11 will be provided a device for their use both at home and at school. We are excited to be able to provide this opportunity to our students and families, and hope it alleviates some of the uncertainty you may have as we prepare for remote learning. 

Both school and district staff are working hard to finalize all of the plans of this project, and details will be communicated by your school as soon as possible. Please watch for announcements via email, the D11 app, text, and on your school’s website for specifics.  Schools will begin communicating later next week the school specific deployment dates. Please give them time to put together the communication and details necessary to make this smooth for you and your students. The goal will be to begin deployments the week of August 17. Teachers and staff are working right now to create great learning experiences for all students as we begin the new year. 

The types of devices being provided are:

• PreK-2nd grade students – iPads
• 3rd - 8th grade students – Chromebooks
• 9th - 12th grade students – Dell Laptops