Dear Team DPS,
Thank you for all of the support and care you’re providing to our students -- and each other -- this week. Particularly in times of turmoil, our connections make us stronger and more resolute. Yesterday’s events in Washington D.C. were crushing to watch, especially on the heels of the historic election of Georgia’s first African-American U.S. Senator the night before.
Now it’s important to carry on -- to rally together for our children, families, and community. We’ve shared resources with our schools to help in talking through and learning from yesterday’s events. And we are here for whatever else our schools and community needs from us.
We also are here to move forward and support with the gradual return to in-person learning, beginning with elementary schools on Monday. Please check with your school about which day your child should return in person, as schedules may vary if your school is phasing in grades on different days. If your child attends a charter school, please contact the school for more information.
I’m sharing with you here all of the latest information on health conditions, through a video with Dr. Bill Burman from Denver Health, the availability of COVID testing for our students, families, and staff, and the safety resources and planning we have in place to ensure the best possible conditions for reopening our schools to our students and families.
If you need additional information or have questions, please feel free to reach out to our Family and Community Helpline, 720-423-3054 or FACEhelpline@dpsk12.org.
We are so looking forward to safely welcoming our students back into our schools for a great second half of the school year.
Sincerely,
Dwight Jones,
Interim Superintendent
Video Updates to Help Prepare for a Safe Return
Collaborating with Our Health Partners for a Safe Return to In-Person Learning
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We continue to work closely with our partners at Denver Health and the Metro Denver Partnership for Health (MDPH) to develop and approve our plans to ensure a successful second semester for our students and staff.
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Keeping Our Community Safe and Healthy
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The most important thing each of us can do to make our return to in-person learning safe and healthy is to carefully follow health and safety guidelines: Wear a mask over your nose and mouth. Wash your hands frequently. Keep physical distance. Stay home if you are sick. These simple steps remain crucial, and we all must do our part. We will continue to monitor health conditions in Denver County and in DPS, and share that data with you on our COVID-19 dashboard. As we shared recently, school districts in the Denver metro area and the MDPH worked together to develop a common set of metrics that align to the state of Colorado’s new COVID-19 dial. We’ll be updating our dashboard in the coming weeks to reflect this shared approach, so you can continue to be up-to-date with the latest health conditions in our community. If you have questions about returning to in-person learning, please contact your school directly, or connect with our Family and Community Helpline at 720-423-3054 or FACEhelpline@dpsk12.org.
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Vaccine Update for DPS Team Members
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As Interim Superintendent Dwight Jones shared Tuesday, DPS is doing everything we can to make vaccines available to our school-based staff as soon as possible. We received clarification from Gov. Polis that the focus of vaccination efforts right now is on people aged 70 and older and "health care workers with less direct contact with COVID-19," which the governor confirmed includes school nurses. He emphasized that teachers and other "frontline essential workers in education" are expected to begin receiving vaccinations in early March.
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Personal Protective Equipment
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DPS is committed to providing the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to make our schools safe. All schools have a large supply of PPE to launch the second semester and will receive more KN95 masks, student masks, hand sanitizer and face shields this week. Schools will be provided with more PPE as needed throughout the year, including a new KN95 mask every week for staff members. We are working with the state to acquire surgical masks as an alternative to KN95s -- stay tuned for more updates.
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Additional Information on COVID Testing
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DPS is pleased to announce we are expanding our partnership with COVIDCheck Colorado to offer our free COVID-19 testing for students to support a safe return to school. Our full community of students and staff will now have the opportunity to take an initial COVID-19 test before coming back to school as well as ongoing screening tests every other week.
Registering for testing can be completed at any of COVIDCheck Colorado’s testing sites via this link. The tests are free, fast, and reliable. You can see an updated list of testing sites here including sites at DPS schools at the Montbello campus, Abraham Lincoln Campus, the North High School Campus, All City Stadium and a new site at George Washington High School. The test will be completed via nasal PCR test or SalivaDirect, and results will be returned within 36-72 hours.
At any time, families and students can schedule a test at existing COVIDCheck Colorado sites. Any DPS student or employee should use our district link, while family members can continue to use the community link (https://www.primarybio.com/l/cdphe).
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