Less than two weeks remain until students are on their way back to school to start a new school year, and Lone Tree and Highland Superintendent Ken Crawford is excited and ready. In recent special school board meetings, both districts decided to implement a hybrid learning model to start the year and will require face coverings for students and staff. Both districts will also meet in September to reconsider moving to a fully on-site learning model if the health situation has improved. Crawford believes bringing kids back to school safely is the focus for both schools,“I think that’s your paramount issue as any administrator or any teacher is to make sure that the kids that are coming into your building are safe. When you think about all the safety measures that have been taken over the last couple decades from locking doors, badges, and all the cleaning and all the things we have done with bus safety. We have seat belts on buses now. I just think that is that next step in making sure we are understanding that if you have a virus or a sickness, because there’s still the flu out there and other common colds still out there, at least we are all getting measures saying, ‘Hey, let’s wash our hands, let’s be conscious of what we touch, let’s clean what we touch.’ The more we work together, the quicker we’ll get through this. And if we work together, hey, in nine weeks or 12 weeks, we might be able to get back to quote unquote normal. But if we fight each other it’s going to take a lot longer.”

Crawford says families in both districts will have the option to choose fully online learning for their students if the hybrid model does not fit their needs. Families will need to fill out an online learning application and turn it in to their respective school principals by August 14.