PSD welcomes kids back to the classroom, and at 2 new schools, without COVID protocols
If you noticed more traffic Tuesday morning, more kids with backpacks and on bikes, or more parents around town without kiddos in tow, you weren’t imagining things: School is back in session for Poudre School District.
PSD schools welcomed back tens of thousands of students and teachers to their halls on Tuesday morning, and staggered start continued at the district’s two new schools in Wellington and Timnath.
District spokesperson Madeline Noblett said PSD has more than 26,000 students enrolled its schools this year, excluding its charter schools.
More:Why you need to know Colorado's bus stop arm law before heading back to school
Two new middle-high schools open their doors
Hundreds of students in the past few days have entered the new Wellington Middle-High School and Timnath Middle-High School for the first time, many commenting on the newness of the building and expressing excitement to start the year.
On Tuesday, Timnath Middle-High School had its third and final transition day, welcoming sixth-graders to the new building before all sixth- through 10th-graders arrive together Wednesday. Students were greeted with high-fives at the doors and a rally inside before starting their day.
Timnath’s principal, Jesse Morrill, told the Coloradoan on Tuesday that the school was focused on “figuring out the new space” and “building a real positive culture (and) healthy relationships with the students.”
“It's just been awesome to see the kids' reaction to the school, to the building, the way they're treating each other,” Morrill said. “We've just got a really great community. And we knew this was coming, but it's been really fun to see that.”
The creation of the two schools — along with Bamford Elementary School, which opened last fall in the southeast corner of the district — was approved by voters through a bond initiative back in 2016 as a way to deal with the rapid growth of these smaller towns.
At full capacity, each school can serve about 1,500 students. This year, they’re opening with just grades 6 through 10, and an additional grade will be added until it offers grades 6 through 12.
Morrill said Tuesday they had about 1,030 kids enrolled.
Related:We analyzed how PSD's new teacher pay package compares with other districts in Colorado
A more normal back to school
In addition to the opening of two new schools, this fall also marks the return of a more normal back-to-school season: For the first time since 2020, students, teachers and staff coming back to the classroom are not required to wear masks.
PSD remains a “mask-friendly” district, meaning students and staff who want to wear masks are able to, but there are very few situations in which a mask is required.
According to the PSD website, masks are required only when a student or staff member is returning to school on days 6-10 after a quarantine or if a student becomes symptomatic at school and is waiting in the precautionary room.
PSD has also scaled down contact tracing.
The district works with the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment to conduct investigations only when there is an outbreak or cluster; individual school-based exposures are no longer traced.
Cases will still be tracked by school and grade level on PSD’s COVID-19 site. As of Tuesday morning, two cases had been reported across the district.
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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated the location of Bamford Elementary School. The school is located in northeast Loveland, in the southeast corner of Poudre School District boundaries.
Molly Bohannon covers city government for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Poudre School District starts school year; 2 new schools open
