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March 4, 2021
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
LittletonIndependent.net
VOLUME 76 | ISSUE 19
Students to return to in-person learning Improving COVID rates, vaccination rollout enable move, though some still skeptical BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Littleton Public Schools is slated to bring all middle and high school students back for full-time, inperson classroom learning starting March 15, more than a month ahead of schedule. “We’ve heard from students, parents and staff that a return to a more normal in-person school experience every day would be the very best thing we could do for our community’s children,” reads a letter from the district to parents in part. Elementary school students have been full-time in-person since the spring semester began in January. Middle and high school students have been on a hybrid schedule, with just two days a week in the classroom and the rest online. District officials originally planned to bring the upper grades back in-person in late April. The move is possible thanks to improving COVID numbers and vaccination rates, district officials say. The district will be part of a wave of metro-area public school districts SEE IN PERSON, P13
Eddie Pulsipher launches over a snow ramp at Goddard Middle School.
PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT
It’s snow day for kids to sit at home BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
E The long march back to the top of the sledding hill at Goddard Middle School.
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17
GO BACK IN TIME
Exhibit features a new look at one of the most fierce dinosaurs P15
ddie Pulsipher was afraid he woke up late for school on Feb. 25, but then he got the news every kid hopes to hear: snow day! Following a blizzard that left much of the Denver area under more than a foot of snow, Littleton Public Schools was one of a few districts that called an honest-to-goodness snow day — nearby districts like Denver, Englewood and Jefferson County continued with remote learning. Freed from class, Eddie, 9, and his buddy Murray Trunnell, also 9, joined the throngs hitting the sledding hill at Goddard Middle School in west Littleton. “It feels like I left gravity,” Eddie said as he hauled his sled back up the hill after careening over a dad-built snow jump. “This is a lot more fun than class.”