While most of the nation kept students at home for part or all of the last academic year, these schools in the suburbs of Colorado Springs, like thousands of others around the country, opened with the overwhelming majority of students in their seats. Masks were optional in elementary school. Although middle- and high-schoolers began with hybrid learning, in November, high school-aged students with significant special education needs were back in-person five days a week.
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Yet thousands of school districts â typically small ones in conservative-leaning counties â reacted to the pandemic like Lewis Palmer District 38 did. Officials in this largely White and affluent school district of 6,600 students near the U.S. Air Force Academy argue they took the right approach to reopening schools. No child was hospitalized with the virus; two school system employees were admitted, though contact tracers did not determine where they contracted the virus, school officials said.
And overall, results from standardized tests show that the average student in Lewis-Palmer made gains in reading. While they lost ground in math, they performed better than the average Coloradan. SAT scores remained steady.
Debate continues over which approach was the right one, and the circumstances in homogenous suburban districts differ from those in big cities. But the experience of systems like Lewis-Palmer offers evidence for those who say schools could have avoided some of the prolonged closures â and the serious academic and social impacts that came from them.
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âWe wanted it to be as normal as possible, and children wearing masks is not normal,â said Chris Taylor, president of the Lewis-Palmer school board. âThe focus of the board was to give parents as much choice as possible â and children could wear masks if they wanted.â
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Still, many said the year felt remarkably normal. Christine Thomas â a kindergarten teacher and president of the districtâs teacher advocacy group, Lewis Palmer Education Association â said she believes last yearâs kindergartners left prepared for first grade.
When she returned to the classroom in fall 2020, she tried to space her students and keep them from getting too close when they played with each other. But she realized that wasnât feasible, and students didnât appear to be getting sick. So, she let them play with each other on the classroom carpet with no restrictions.
Giving teachers that freedom in classrooms was intentional, school leaders said. They didnât have the funds to redesign classroom with new spaced-out furniture â and they didnât want classrooms to feel different from a standard year. So long as teachers and students showed up, they wanted their schools to feel normal.
