Denver Catholic

32 FEBRUARY 2021 | DENVER CATHOLIC W hile most school districts in Colorado were closed to in-person learning this fall, the Catholic schools in the Arch- diocese of Denver were 100 percent open. Not only were they open, but they did so without the huge COVID-19 outbreaks that some had predicted. School leaders worked incredibly hard over the summer months to establish countless "layers of protection" to keep their students and staff as safe as possible – from reconfiguring classrooms, estab- lishing robust cleaning routines, creating cohorts and even redesigning what walking down the hallways, recess and lunch would look like for stu- dents. It has been a "herculean" effort to be sure, but critical to the welfare of the 36 schools' more than 9,000 students and 900 staff members. As a result of the hard work put forth by school leaders and staff members, as well as their cre- ative solutions to COVID challenges, our Catholic schools saw less than one percent of students and less than four percent of the staff members test positive over the entire fall semester – numbers that are less than the overall positivity rate for children and the general Colorado population. Furthermore, in nearly all positive cases at Catho- lic schools, those who contracted the virus did so from other family members or outside of the school day. This speaks volumes about the protocols in place that prevented outside confirmed cases from being spread within our schools. Denver's Catholic schools mark a successful, 'herculean' semester of in-person learning We're OPEN! BY CAROL NESBITT AND ABRIANA CHILELLI Office of Catholic Schools CATH O LIC SCH OO L S Less than 1% of students Less than 4% of staff members tested positive for COVID-19 over the entire fall semester

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