BVSD Outlines Plans for Potential Closures, CHSAA Bans Spectators from Basketball Finals

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Henry Larson

Water fountains are now decorated with more signs encouraging basic hygiene. This one shows how to cover a cough.

Henry Larson, Co Editor-in-Chief

As of Wednesday Evening, CHSAA(The Colorado High School Activities Association) outlined a plan to limit attendance at the state basketball finals set for Friday.

The Fairview men’s team was scheduled to compete in the Final Four, before the finals.

“We are making the difficult decision to limit attendance to essential team personnel only, without fans in attendance. Essential personnel means only those who have been submitted on the official CHSAA gate list by schools will be able to enter the venue,” the organization said in a press release earlier in the evening.

CHSAA is letting each player bring four personal guests to the game, with a recommendation that they practice safe spacing.

In a press conference with Governor Jared Polis, CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green said, “circumstances have changed with this pandemic, and the focus must now be on how we give the kids the experience of a state champ event.”

On the morning of March 11th, district officials held a meeting with principals across Boulder Valley. In the meeting, they laid out steps they would need to take in the event of both short term and long term closures.

Officials said they would be following the advice of the Boulder County Health Department and the CDPHE.

For short term closures(3-4 days), said Principal Don Stensrud, BVSD would simply treat them like snow days. That means that students would not have to spend any extra time in school.

For a closure of about 10 days, the district was considering extending the school day to make up for the lost “seat time.” They suggested extending the day 5 minutes at the start and the end.

A longer school closure(14 days or more), would prompt the district to begin online classes. However, they recognized that not all families would have access to a stable internet connection.

Stensrud said, in the event of a longer quarantine, the district would give each student who didn’t have a computer a Chromebook, and try to provide households without Wi-FI with a router.

Fairview is one of a few schools in the district which did not participate in BVSD’s 1:Web program, which promises to give a Chromebook to every student in a school. Faculty objected to the program, saying that the Chromebook’s lack of a hard drive would be a barrier for learning outside of school.

The district has yet to make a public statement today, despite another 10 cases being confirmed today across the state, and the decision at CU Boulder to switch to entirely online classes.

 

For the latest information about COVID-19, visit the CDPHE’s website.