In early 2020, after a nationwide search and months of interviews had come to a conclusion, a new superintendent was selected, Dr. David Baugh. Along with the challenge of taking a new position, Dr. Baugh has to tackle education during a pandemic. In the following months of this transition, Dr. Baugh and Aspen School District would prepare for a school year with a different learning model ever used by Aspen School District before.

When the school year began in late August, grades sixth through 12th grade began online, while kindergarten through 5th began working with a hybrid schedule. These decisions were made after months of preparation to create a safe learning model for the school district. However, Dr. Baugh and the Aspen School district faced lots of speculation regarding their plans.

 “There’s a lot of second-guessing… We’re following the CDC guidelines… We follow those and we work [with] that and are trying to figure out a safe way to get students back onto campus, because I really believe the relationship between students and teachers is where real learning occurs,” Dr. Baugh said.

Chris Kelleher, an eighth-grade teacher at Aspen Middle School, expressed concerns over online teaching and the lack of social interaction, in which many students and teachers find important. 

“I think that it’s challenging understanding that kids, my kids, all kids do better at school when they’re in school surrounded by their peers,” Chris said. 

Chris also expressed concerns for social distancing when school begins again, and the adjustment that will take place when a new school model is implemented.

“How does the traffic flow through the building? What will lunch look like?” Kelleher asked. “It’s challenging, it’s going to be a whole new level of adjustment and patience and frustration… there are so many unknowns and that’s the hard [part].”

 Aspen High School Principal, Sarah Strassburger, expressed similar feelings towards the school’s reopening.

“I think it’s hard because there’s no clear you know parameters. I think people have really really different opinions about COVID and about the role of school. So I think everyone’s trying their best. I think it was really important to get the little kids back here because it’s really hard for them to learn the computer… hopefully we’ll just get more and more kids back on campus I mean I think that’s the ultimate goal until we can actually have everybody here and do it safely,” Strassburger said.

Despite the chaos created by the pandemic, Dr. Baugh, the assistant superintendent, principles, teachers, and other faculty members are committed to helping students return to campus. 

“We have lots of task force task forces, and [we’re] just trying to get everybody’s voices heard,” Strassburger said.