CU Boulder to shift to remote learning for 2 weeks due to COVID-19 outbreak; 2 Colorado Springs schools temporarily closed to students

The University of Colorado Boulder will shift to remote instruction for at least two weeks beginning Wednesday due to an outbreak at the campus, the school's chancellor announced, the same day two schools in the Pikes Peak region's largest districts announced they're grappling with the virus as well.

Since instituting a two-week "stay at home" period for students last week, "our COVID-19 cases have started to come down," Chancellor Phillip DiStefano wrote in a message to campus Monday morning.

The shift to online learning would further "the downward trend and help protect the health and safety of our Boulder community," he added, further stating that the decision was made "in close consultation with local and state public health officials."

Farther south, Douglass Valley Elementary School in Colorado Spring's Academy District 20, the area's largest school district, was temporarily closed Monday after a student tested positive for coronavirus, a district official said in a news release.

The school is located on the grounds of the Air Force Academy and serves families that include those living in base housing. Shutting down for a 24-hour period gives more time for contact tracing, cleaning the building and coordinating with El Paso County Public Health, district said.

Doherty High School in Colorado Springs District 11, the area's second largest district, will delay its return to full in-person learning until Oct. 6 . An individual connected to the school had been assessed to be a "presumptive positive" due to his or her exposure to a known positive case, as well as the presentation of symptoms, the district said in a news release Monday.

An additional District 11 school, Wilson Elementary School, also has a "presumptive positive" case. Both schools will remain open for staff to access them and will continue to conduct remote learning, though Wilson will continue with its plan for interested students to return to in-person learning this week, the release stated.

District 20 resumed in-person learning this month, allowing middle- and high-school students to attend school on a hybrid schedule. Preschool and elementary students were allowed to return in person or online when the district resumed school last month. Students whose families chose remote learning have been allowed to continue in their online programs.

District 11 plans to bring back interested elementary- and middle-school students to in-person learning on a staggered timeline this week. Interested high-school students are slated to return to in-person learning via a hybrid schedule next week. The district had intended to keep all students in remote-learning programs through the end of the first quarter, in October. But Superintendent Michael Thomas said at a late August board meeting that students could be brought back as early as mid-September, should virus conditions in the county stabilize or trend favorably.

Under pandemic guidance released in late July by the state health department, schools are advised to shut down for several days for contact tracing if one student tests positive for COVID-19, and for two weeks if two or more students in two or more classrooms test positive.