DENVER — DENVER — In Douglas County, Jaimie Woolridge is already looking after one of her sons who is learning remotely. Soon, she’ll have a total of four children doing their schoolwork from home, a difficult task for any parent.
"Especially with my younger one who as a second-grader, he hasn’t gotten the fundamentals of reading and spelling yet and he also actually has ADHD so he can barely sit still, he can’t focus," Woolridge said.
Despite the state giving the green light for some students to still be able to go to the classroom, some districts aren’t going to be making any changes to their current plan.
For example, Jefferson County pointed out staffing issues as a problem with a rise in COVID cases.
Douglas County said they would be evaluating their plans for the second semester.
And Denver Public Schools will be going fully remote for everyone after Thanksgiving.
For President of the Poudre Education Association John Robinson, teachers would love to go back into the classroom but it makes it hard to think about returning when cases are on the rise.
"But currently in in-person learning it just doesn't seem that we have the ability or the funds to be able to do it in a safe and pragmatic manner. We do have to adhere to a 6-foot distance between people and buildings. We have to make sure that we have proper PP and that we can clean and mitigate correctly to make sure that we can fight this disease effectively," Robinson said.
Still, Woolridge would like parents to have more of a choice in the way their children are taught.
"With regard to mine and many of my friends in our community, we would like to make the choice to have in person learning," said Woolridge.