A MESSAGE FROM OUR SUPERINTENDENT
Dr. Walt Cooper
(Dr. Cooper's Bio)
I recently wrote about looking upon our Cheyenne Mountain Community’s support for our schools, students, and staff in a little different light, as thinking beyond the traditional sources and displays of parent and community support have become paramount in our efforts to effectively manage learning amidst the current pandemic.
There is perhaps no better example of this than the District 12 Medical Professionals Advisory Committee that we put together beginning in December to help my leadership team and me navigate what continues to be a continually evolving issue, both in terms of understanding the disease itself and how best to implement state, county, and local protocols with the ultimate goal of safely returning all students to school every day.
Beginning in November with a simple electronic parent survey that included responses by more than 60 D-12 physicians and public health experts, the idea of an advisory panel was advanced by several neighborhood doctors, all with children in D-12 schools. With no hesitation whatsoever, Drs. Eric Caplan, MD; Melissa Ewer, MD; Jason Ferguson, DO; Jesse Flaxenburg, MD; Betsy Kleiner, MD; Brian Metz, MD; Jeff Moody, MD; Jon O'Neil, MD; Renee Pazdan, MD; and Ninet Sinaii, PhD, agreed to come on board and work in partnership to help us make the best decisions possible in support of students and staff members.
As we convened just before the winter school break to begin thinking about what school would look like as we transitioned back from remote learning to start the second semester, I was immediately overwhelmed by the body of knowledge to which we suddenly had direct access. This collaboration was paramount to our understanding and prioritizing new quarantine protocols, being able to explain the science and the rationale behind them to parents and students who were impacted, and assessing the true feasibility of COVID testing inside of schools. Currently, the crux of our group’s conversations are focused on two things: getting accurate and timely information to staff regarding COVID vaccinations, and determining when it is reasonably safe to return to full-time, in-person learning for all students based on the prevalence of disease in our community.
It is no secret that we have long been blessed with a host of community resources available to support our students and staff, but I don’t know that any of us would have envisioned the need to add an advisory panel of outstanding physicians and public health experts to the list of these resources. But given how much is at stake, primarily for our students and staff, I’m certainly glad we did, and we should all appreciate their valuable service to our school community.