Dear 9-R community,

To help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Colorado, on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered that all public and private schools across the state suspend in-person learning from March 23 to April 17.

The Governor made this order via press release yesterday afternoon.

Based on feedback from local health officials and community leaders, Durango School District 9-R is extending its current cancellation for students through Friday, March 27. The district will continue to monitor the situation in our community and make decisions regarding further extension of the cancelation by Wednesday of each week. This will remain our practice for each week moving forward as needed until a decision to resume school is made.

We recognize that school closing is a major decision and challenges many of our families with a lack of childcare or supervision while parents are engaged in their careers and work. We don’t take this decision lightly, but will always take the best interest of our community to heart as we evaluate the situation.

Currently, our schools are closed until Wednesday, March 25. Our district will evaluate conditions and circumstances each week and determine if extension of the closure is needed. Those decisions can be expected on Wednesday of each week. As this is a rapidly changing situation, we will decide one week at a time to limit the unnecessary impact on our community as a whole.

Durango School District 9-R, in partnership with local and state public health agencies, is closely monitoring the global outbreak of COVID-19, otherwise known as novel coronavirus.

At this point we have cancelled after-school activities for the remainder of this week, and we are adjusting our spring break schedule.

As you know, all of our community agencies are closely monitoring the situation involving the Coronavirus. Our school district continues to work with San Juan Basin Public Health and other local authorities to monitor the situation and have a preparedness plan to support our students and our families in the event that a local case is detected.

With heightened concerns around communities preparing for and preventing the spread of COVID-19, also known as novel coronavirus, there have been several considerations regarding school trips, spring break travel, and travel in general. Currently, there are not any travel restrictions within the U.S. For the latest information on CDC travel recommendations and restrictions see: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html.

While there are several trips for both students and staff for competitions, trainings, and trips, the district will continue to follow local and state recommendations for travel restrictions, quarantines, or otherwise. We are closely monitoring the situation within our community and our schools with our local health authority.

Dear 9-R Families,
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a statement this week advising communities to prepare for a domestic outbreak of COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus. To-date, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Colorado.
Building on best practices and official health recommendations, 9-R is updating its Emergency Operations Plan in concert with San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) to ensure current best practices are reflected in our response plan.

The District has engaged in many community discussions to identify the best ways to support students and families struggling with paying for their meal charges in school. After soliciting much feedback, the District has updated its regulation to better reflect current practice in the District, and now includes a Hardship Application to support families finding themselves in unexpected meal charge debt.

Over the past few weeks, misinformation has been circulated regarding our school lunch policy and our community deserves the facts. Firstly, no student has received a partial lunch during the 2019-20 school year. No member of the 9-R team has employed shaming tactics toward students. And, the District maintains compliance with National School Lunch and National School Breakfast program federal guidelines.
In 2015, the district faced a critical issue as it ended the school year with over $18,000 in meal charge debt. Because school district Food & Nutrition Services departments are an independent enterprise, they are intended to be self-supporting. When a deficit occurs, the District needs to use general funds to offset losses, funds that should be designated for classrooms. It has been 9-R’s focus to minimize impacts on educational funding to maximize programs and educational resources for our students.

After conducting due diligence (via: conversations with a variety of stakeholders and our constituents; responses and comments received via the survey and at the two community forums; many letters to the board; examination of current research; and a thorough review of safety and security practices already in place or actively planned), the Durango 9-R School Board is not proposing to make major changes in our school district security personnel.