CREEDE- The first week of school for the Creede School District has come and gone and with it was four days of sweet success. According to Creede School Principal, John Goss, the first week of school went quite well and, in some cases, better than expected.

The district spent countless hours preparing for the return to school this fall and devised a plan of action to match the threat of COVID-19. With the help of the community at large the small mountain town has had five straight weeks of zero active cases, which in turn set the stage for students to return to school in a safe and productive manner.

“We are really pleased with how things have progressed so far. The first week was a bit daunting at first, but everything went great. We have about 88 students attending in-person learning and about six students doing our online curriculum. What is great about that is they are still in the classroom with the other students, but they are there virtually. They still learn in real time though,” said Goss.

Toward the latter part of summer, the Creede School District was awarded federal funding to help with the cost of purchasing brand-new iPads and Google Chrome Books for individual students. “We did this not only to make sure that equipment wasn’t being shared but also just in case we need to move to plan B. Our intent is to make sure that no matter what happens this school year, these students do not miss a single day of school,” stated Goss.

Students and teachers have been taking advantage of the recent warm weather to enjoy their outdoor spaces and utilize their entire school for learning. “We want to give them every opportunity to social distance and take off their masks when possible. We were concerned at the beginning that we may have some reluctancy from older students about having to wear masks, but it actually turned out better than we anticipated. Everyone is playing along, and I think that they are just so happy to be back to some kind of normal school.”

Goss also explained that common areas are being used periodically, “We switch between class groups which we kind of think of as families. Each group gets to have time in the lunchroom for lunch on opposite days. This gives them the chance to enjoy the entire school, while continuing to follow restrictions.”

“We really want to take a moment and thank the Creede community and visitors for helping us have the opportunity to bring students back to school this year. If it wasn’t for the efforts of the community at large, we have found ourselves in an entirely different situation all together. No outbreaks of COVID is good news for us. Keep up the good work!”

Goss stated that the school is prepared if an outbreak should occur and that the morning symptom checks have been going very well. “The morning symptom checks are going much faster than we originally thought. So far everything has been great.”

Goss finished by stating that the school, teachers and staff are all working hard to make the best of the year and follow restrictions without making it too odd for students. “We are going to hang in there with in-person learning as long as we can, but we are also prepared if something changes.”