Week of January 13, 2022
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An edition of the Littleton Independent A publication of
VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 8
Officials urge signing up for alerts for wildfires BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Day care programs could also be disrupted due to staffing shortages, according to a Jan. 2 letter from the superintendent. School resumed on Jan. 4 for the spring semester in Cherry Creek amid a steep spike in new coronavirus cases in Colorado, driven by the more-contagious omicron variant. The school district told families to prepare for hurdles resulting from staffing and substitute shortages and potential outbreaks of COVID-19 cases in a classroom,
Some residents during the Marshall Fire say they received little notice — or no notice at all — to flee their homes in the face of an inferno fueled by 100 mile per hour wind gusts, The Colorado Sun reported. In an emergency, multiple different alert systems could come into play, and that often isn’t common knowledge, said Eric Hurst, a spokesperson for South Metro Fire Rescue. The South Metro Fire District coverage area includse 12 municipalities, including Aurora, Bow Mar, Castle Pines, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Columbine Valley, Foxfield, Greenwood Village, Lakewood, Littleton, Lone Tree and Parker. “In the emergency management community, anecdotally, the number is one-third of residents across the country sign up for emergency alerts, and two-thirds don’t,” Hurst said. There is an alert system that the public doesn’t have to sign up for: the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which is operated under FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That system can send messages to an area based on location, including through mobile phones. But “it is not perfect, and some will not get the alert, and some will get it that are not in the alert area,” said Deputy John Bartmann, a spokesperson for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. “This was the issue we had when we sent the boil-water alert to a section of the City of Englewood earlier (last) year.”
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A Cherry Creek School District bus rolls past Grandview High School in east Centennial.
PHOTO BY ELLIS ARNOLD
Cherry Creek may see class, school closures due to staff shortages As omicron spreads, district may also see impacts to bus routes, meals BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The Cherry Creek School District has warned families to prepare for possible disruptions to school during the coming weeks, including temporary classroom or whole-
school closures due to staff and substitute shortages. “As we continue back through this new variant, we realized that the contagion rate is much higher than in recent months,” Superintendent Christopher Smith said in a video message sent to families Jan. 4. “So we may have some impacts around staffing shortages in transportation, food and nutrition, and in our classrooms. “What I’d like you to know is our leadership team, from a district level, is leaning into schools and supporting any way we possibly can,” Smith added.
INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 7 | VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | SPORTS: PAGE 12
JUST THE HIGH POINTS Exploring the highest elevations in Metro Denver
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