"As COVID cases are spiking across the district, learning will continue next week, with teachers instructing students remotely so all can be protected from the risk of spread," said SFPS Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez.

"I urge all in our community to shore up safety gaps at home, wear KN-95 or three-ply masks when in public, limit large gatherings and, most importantly, get vaccinated and boosted. With this pause, let's do all we can to stop the spread so we can quickly return to in-person learning. We are committed to welcoming students back to classrooms as soon as we can safely do so, which will hopefully be on January 24th," he said.

Though school buildings will be closed, parents' phone calls and emails will be answered daily. Remind and ClassDoJo communications with parents will continue and classroom teachers will contact parents and students if in-person meetings previously scheduled for next week will go virtual.

Parents have been provided with schedules from their school sites, so all should know when their students need to log on. Learning will be both synchronous and asynchronous, just as with last spring when learning was remote. SFPS will utilize the same platforms as last spring, which are Canvas for grades 2-12 and Seesaw for grades K-1.

In addition:

Capital High School students and their computer science teacher, Barbara Teterycz, have just completed a project that analyzes COVID death rates and numbers for two years, January 1st, 2020 to January 1st, 2022. Their conclusion: "...the situations in both California and Texas are no longer as bad as we initially thought, but at the same time, the situation in New Mexico is no longer as optimistic as it seemed to be." Said the students, "We hope that our project will help our local community better understand the severity of the problem and the importance of complying with the guidelines from the health authorities."