Denver schools began 2021 on a hopeful note, welcoming students back to classrooms after a lengthy digital hibernation.
As in other urban districts, it’s an undertaking that demands pinpoint coordination between principals managing hybrid schedules, teachers still awaiting vaccination shots, and families who aren’t totally sold on giving up remote instruction. But despite the logistical hurdles, and even the worrisome spike in COVID outbreaks at schools and colleges throughout Colorado, some of the anxiety around returning to school is beginning to abate.
If the district’s leaders have begun to address one excruciating hangover from 2020, however, they’ll soon be seeking relief from a second. Atop the myriad complications related to coronavirus-related learning loss, Denver Public Schools found itself rudderless after Superintendent Susana Cordova suddenly resigned in November. Interim superintendent Dwight Jones, appointed through July but not expected to stay on, is spearheading the district’s response to the greatest academic crisis in American history.
