CREEDE — The Creede School District Board of Education met Tuesday, July 27, and discussed the coming school year and heard about a new volunteer program proposed by new Vice Principal Jennifer Johnson.

The board opened with a few changes to the agenda and moved into regular business to discuss a draft an opening plan for the 2021-2022 school year. The first day of school is Aug. 23.

With ever-changing COVID-19 data coming from the CDC pertaining to the new variant and vaccination reports, many schools across the Valley are waiting for definite guidelines before finalizing an opening plan. Most plans that have been discussed by boards throughout the San Luis Valley have been presented as drafts, pending final approval following what is provided by the CDC and local public health departments.

At this time, the plan for the district is to continue practices that were implemented last year and to continue sanitation cleaning throughout the school year. More definite plans will be discussed once meetings with public health and school officials. These will be released as more information is gathered on guidelines.

Also, during the meeting, board members listened to a proposal from Johnson about how to get the community more involved. Johnson read a letter she intended to send out to the community.

“As a school community, we strive daily to make our school’s mission statement come alive so that through a safe, inclusive, and nurturing environment we can encourage and inspire students to achieve academic excellence, build character, and discover a lifelong love of learning.  

“As the school community reflects on the challenging time in which we have been faced during the pandemic and look forward to how we can continue to support our students socially, emotionally, and educationally, one area of importance that stands out for us is the need for a strong family-community-school partnership. At this time, with this partnership in mind, the school community would like to invite our families/community members into our school through our new volunteer program.  

“As a volunteer, you are special. The time you offer is a gift to our students and our staff. There are numerous ways to become involved within our school community. As a volunteer you can mentor or tutor students, act as a lunchroom or playground monitor, become a guest reader, act as a classroom helper...the possibilities are endless. Through this partnership we believe that together we can share a goal to develop a range of resources and partnerships to address any barriers to learning, enhance the healthy development of youth, and strengthen the whole community. 

“If you would like to join the Creede Miner school community as a volunteer, please contact our school by phone at 719 658 2220 or by using the volunteer link on our district’s website that should be available to you by August 12th. Thank you in advance for considering to be a volunteer at Creede School.”