Polis, health officials laud Aurora school as students return to class

AURORA | Bringing students back to school during the coronavirus pandemic will be a challenge, but it’s one that the Cherry Creek School District has risen to, Gov. Jared Polis said during a Thursday visit to Village East Elementary School in Aurora.

Unlike many others in the metro area, the district opted to begin the school year with in-person learning, with remote learning as an option for students and teachers who are uncomfortable going back just yet. This is the district’s first week of school, which is a “phase in” week with one grade returning each day to get a feel for how schooling will look like during the pandemic.

At the school Polis donned one of the face masks that are being distributed by the state to every school in Colorado, and school nurse Chana Aminov took his temperature before he stepped into the classroom.

“I feel very comfortable being here,” Aminov said. She said she believes the district has a good plan for how the school year will work and that everyone at the school has been cooperating very well. She praised the district for having at least one full-time nurse in each school.

State senators Jeff Bridges and Nancy Todd and also visited classrooms along with Polis. A former teacher in the Cherry Creek School District, Todd said she was encouraged by what she saw at the school and by walking into the classroom and seeing “the smile on children’s faces.”

Polis praised Siegfried for the work the district has done to make the school year as safe as possible.

“Our teachers and administrators have worked so hard on this,” he said.

He also thanked teachers, noting that nobody signed up to teach during a pandemic.

Polis acknowledged that balancing the needs and concerns of different groups can be a challenge. A parent himself, he said he’s excited for his own kids to get back to school but also worried about how the school year will go.

Siegfried said the district is planning for contingencies, including having to quarantine classrooms if students contract COVID-19, but he thought that it was important to start the school year in person so that students can develop a relationship with their teachers if they end up needing to learn online.

Tri-County health department director John M. Douglas, who worked with the district to create health guidelines, said he believes the district has done a good job putting safeguards in place. 

While a COVID-19 vaccine has yet to be developed, he urged everyone to get a flu vaccine this fall and to encourage their friends and family to do so as well in order to try and get the state’s flu vaccination rate up.

Mia Robinson, Village East’s principal, said that she’s proud of her students and excited to have them back.

 “We know that the most important place for them to be is right here in in the building,” she said. “They are learning, they are happy, our families are excited to be back, and I feel like our health guidance and our flexibility to adjust to whatever comes our way has just allowed us to be able to open up and to show other schools that this is possible.”