Photo of the Needham Elementary community garden.

Students play on the outdoor musical instruments.

Photo of the Needham Elementary entrance in the fall.

Principal's Message

Message from the Principal Nov. 5th, 2020

Dear Needham Families, First we wanted to say thank you for your patience with a quickly evolving situation. While the closure of our school was an unfortunate event, we are grateful to all of you for your continued support, and steady response, in the face of this circumstance

Needham News Oct. 23rd, 2020

Good Afternoon Needham Wildcat Families! Today marks the last day of the 1st Quarter and we appreciate your support to keep 100% of our cohorts open the past 9 weeks. While the policies for symptomatic students to return may at times appear cumbersome, it is essential we remain diligent as we enter the heart of the traditional cold and flu season. Please make sure to keep students home when they’re exhibiting any symptoms, and communicate this information to Needham Office at 970-247-4791. If we continue to work together as a community, I am confident in our ability to continue blended and in-person learning throughout the months ahead.

Needham Wildcat Family Message Oct. 8th, 2020

Dear Needham Wildcat Families, We are reaching out in order to share information, so that we are able to make decisions that are well informed, and in alignment with the values of our community. When the school year began, you all selected a model of learning from the different options the district made available. With the various requests that were made, we were able to staff all three models at all grade levels. During the first quarter of school, various families have opted to come back in-person for multiple reasons.

Instructional Feedback Survey

As a reminder, we are asking families to share your remote learning experiences with us every week. Your feedback helps us to continually refine and improve the instruction your children receive while remote. We want to be swift in our response to your feedback and we will ask you to complete this each Friday so that we can make adjustments early the next school week.

9-R Community Update - 11.20.20

As shared last weekend, the district will focus its communication on Friday to update you on important matters at the district level during this pivot to remote learning for our students. In this video, we hope to share updates with you on: - The rationale for the shift to remote learning; - The current status of our community with regard to the COVID crisis; - Our pathway forward as we look forward to reopening our schools in a safe and careful manner; and, - Reminders about services currently available to our students as we provide remote services to our K-12 students.

Remote Learning Expectations

Thank you for partnering with us during the next few weeks as we engage your child in remote learning while we prepare to hopefully open our schools after the winter holidays. On Friday, we will provide you with more information as to our community's progress in getting control of the spread of the COVID-19 virus and our metrics we will look for as we prepare to reopen our schools in the future.

Apply to be on the 9-R Bond Oversight Committee

We are so incredibly grateful for the ongoing support the community of Durango has for education. Thank you to all of those who supported the bond initiative, whether you helped on the committee or filled in the 'yes' circle. As we move forward with the expenditures of the bond dollars, we are seeking community and staff members to support the work ahead of us.

Remote Meal Services

Order your FREE meals for pick up from school sites or bus routes. Durango School District 9R Food Services is requesting families fill out a form and pre-order meals for delivery starting 11/16. Order deadlines will be the Friday before the delivery week.

Community Update on Cohort Closures - 11.10.20

The following is an update for the 9-R community and does not apply to families who have been notified of a required quarantine: Dear Families, On November 10, 2020, 9-R was notified by San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) that there were four additional affected cohorts including the following: Riverview Elementary, Needham Elementary, Durango High School and DHS Athletics. The schools and the district are working proactively with SJBPH to make the appropriate determinations regarding contact tracing and determinations on close contacts with this case.

9-R Pivots to Remote Learning for All Families - 11.10.20

Dear Families, We commend all the efforts that our families and staff have made to allow 9-R to open up our school year with three different learning models, including in-person. That was not an option for many districts across the state and the country, and we are grateful for the opportunity to support students and enjoy success in the first quarter of the school year with little to no issue.

Update for the Community - 11.8.20

Good afternoon 9-R Families and Staff. As you probably know, our community is seeing a significant increase in new cases of COVID-19. This is not unlike the rest of our state or nation at this point. Needham Elementary School is closed to a majority of its students due to potential exposure of staff members to a positive case. Students were not at risk of exposure as they were not at school due to the cancelation of school a week ago Friday.

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