Special to the Daily
Melisa Rewold-Thuon, assistant superintendent for Eagle County Schools, remembers spending her birthday at the emergency school board meeting. “It’s a birthday I will always remember,” she said of March 13, 2020.
. It would close 17 schools and switch to remote learning for three weeks starting Tuesday, just three days later.
The news that kids would be learning from home because of the rapidly-evolving pandemic, exactly one week after Eagle County’s first confirmed coronavirus infection, reverberated throughout the county’s households and businesses.
“I was hoping for the best, but also worrying, what if we have a huge outbreak?” Rewold-Thuon said of the uncertain weeks leading up to the district’s announcement, when the shadow of the pandemic spread and darkened, but had not yet upended life. “I do remember thinking, ‘This is not going to be good, I have a feeling,’” Rewold-Thuon said.
Chris Dillmann
A proposed agreement reached by Eagle County Schools and its teachers’ union aimed to strike a balance between one-time bonuses and pay increases for staff and hiring additional employees. But the measure was voted down by the district’s board Wednesday night.
The two-part agreement was reached by a negotiations team including district administrators, principals and teachers.
The first part focused on what to do with $1.7 million of unspent funding from a variety of budget line items that saw expenditures decline or money go unspent this school year, in large part because of pandemic impacts and grant funding that materialized to help cover costs.
Avon Elementary and Berry Creek Middle School recently sent COVID-19 notices to community members after learning of three positive cases, all last in school Tuesday, March 2.
A staff member at Avon Elementary School tested positive for the virus and 12 students and one staff member have been directed to quarantine, Eagle County Schools said Monday.
At Berry Creek, one staff member and one student tested positive for the virus, with one staff member and one student directed to quarantine.
Battle Mountain High School was notified of a student testing positive over the weekend, but contact tracing determined no other students or staff will need to quarantine.
On Friday, the Eagle County School District announced that Avon Elementary, Eagle Valley High School and Red Canyon High School recently sent COVID-19 notices to their communities after being notified of positive cases by Public Health. Across the three schools, 23 students will quarantine.
In each incident, contact tracing determined that those in close contact with a positive case need to quarantine. Those needing to quarantine received orders to follow from Public Health specific to their incident. Students in quarantine will be able to return to school following the February break on Monday, Feb. 22.
Avon Elementary School sent notifications home last week after learning that a student tested positive. The positive case was last in school on Monday, Feb. 8. Eleven students will quarantine related to this incident. No staff members were determined to be close contacts.
Pearl Hess and her first grade students at Avon Elementary School. Photo courtesy of Eagle County Schools.
Eagle County Schools is giving a big “thank you” to Kenzi’s Causes, a Denver-area nonprofit, for gifts to students at Avon Elementary School this holiday season.
Kenzi’s Causes, founded by Jessica Bachus in 2007 after her daughter was born stillborn, donated gifts to students at the school, providing supply-packed school backpacks and new toys.
The organization previously provided 60 backpacks full of new school supplies to Avon Elementary students at the beginning of the school year, but redoubled its support this holiday season, donating holiday gifts for all 300-plus Avon Elementary students last month.