Lake County School District

Leadville, Colorado

Interview

We interviewed Becca Katz and Taylor Trelka in December 2020. Both are district staff who worked tirelessly on the Lake County Schools’ transition to increased outdoor learning during the pandemic. Their comments were edited by Kyle Macdonald, Senior Manager, Green Schoolyards America.

Q: How did your school district use your outdoor spaces before the COVID-19 pandemic?

LCSD: Nature-based learning has been part of Lake County School District for many years now, with a heavy emphasis in the last four years due to funding from Great Outdoors Colorado to develop the Get Outdoors Leadville! (GOL!) initiative. GOL! is directly embedded into the district now and has supported our Expeditionary Learning pedagogical strategy with both backyard and “backcountry” nature-based learning. Teachers frequently bring their students to nearby outdoor spaces — to our formal outdoor classrooms, to the forest, and to the park. With partner support, teachers bring students to nearby public lands (National Forests, county open space, Colorado Parks and Wildlife managed land, etc.) for deeper nature-based fieldwork experiences.

In addition to the outdoor spaces teachers have used, many have brought nature into the classroom which has really embodied EL Education’s Core Principle, “Creating beautiful spaces that promote learning.” With this, nature is incorporated into every part of the students’ day.

Q: How did your school district bring education outside this year?

LCSD: Kindergarten-sixth grade students in Lake County School District (LCSD) began their learning in a hybrid model blending in-person instruction two days per week with outdoor experiences two days per week (note: LCSD had a pre-COVID four-day school week in place). On their outdoor days, students visited the 100 Elk Outdoor Center in a neighboring town to do activities ranging from challenging themselves on the high ropes course, rock climbing, canoeing, to eco hikes. They also did their “at-home” learning in the form of academic packets assigned by their teacher and completed with support from 100 Elk staff.

After the first six weeks, the Project Dream 2nd Days Supports Program continued and modified the model developed with 100 Elk for K–6 learners. The program retooled Project Dream’s after school and Friday programming — but instead of being after school or Fridays, it takes place when the students are not with their teacher. The program blends academic support and online learning activities with enrichment clubs. An adult crew leader is with students throughout the day to support and supervise. Many of the enrichment clubs are offered by Get Outdoors Leadville! — so students are often spending parts of their days outdoors doing everything from playing games to cross-country skiing and riding mountain bikes and snow bikes (with equipment borrowed from the Get Outdoors Leadville!’s Community Gear Library). Full Circle of Lake County, Cloud City Conservation Center, and the Lake County Recreation Department are additional club partners participating in the Project Dream 2nd Day Supports program. These partners frequently take their students outdoors too, sometimes with gear borrowed from the Gear Library.

Finally, it's worth noting that partners leveraged and reallocated grant funds to pay for the enrichment club portion of the Program. The rest of the program is funded by Project Dream’s grants, Lake County government, and District CARES Act funds. This programming (both 100 Elk and Project Dream) is also possible due to extensive in-kind support from Get Outdoors Leadville!, a key district partner.

Q: How did you prepare your staff and community to take learning outside this year?

LCSD: Our teachers have been taking learning outdoors for years, so this training has already been integrated in professional development. That said, although many of our teachers are comfortable and confident teaching outdoors, for the COVID-response programming, we predominantly relied on external partners to take learning and students outdoors. 

The idea to have students outdoors on their non-classroom day really solidified about two-and-half weeks before the school year started. Given the short timeline, we recognized the many challenges of doing this program “in-house” right out of the gate. We simply would not have had enough staff or facilities/supplies on the timeline needed. The 100 Elk program bought us time. We still had many logistical hurdles to overcome: transportation, meals, med distribution, COVID protocols, rosters/cohorting, communicating with families, waivers, etc. The actual outdoor programming logistics were easier because 100 Elk has an established campus with all kinds of resources (a pond for canoeing, high and low ropes courses, archery equipment, etc.). They essentially ran a modified version of their day camp with some academic time built in.

As we mentioned, we started out the school year with six weeks of partnership with 100 Elk Outdoor Center. Initially, the main reason why we did this was because we didn’t have the resources to do a program ourselves. This ended up being a happy problem — as we were thrilled with the quality of the program 100 Elk offered. After six weeks, when we made the move to do the Project Dream 2nd Day Supports Program “in house,” we had a whole new pool of talented youth program providers to hire. Lake County School District contracted 15 100 Elk staff members (of a total of 28) to run the Project Dream 2nd Day Supports Program. These staff facilitated the academic support and were staff support for the partner enrichment clubs.

For us, establishing outdoor classrooms has been fairly easy since we have a lot of backyard nature right outside our buildings. Where we’ve needed different resources (i.e., parks, playing fields), we have collaborated closely with the Lake County Recreation Department to use their facilities. We haven’t needed “permits” per se, but permissions, which the Recreation Department has been generous in giving.

Q: What types of planning and implementation did you do related specifically to COVID health needs?

LCSD: We borrowed extensively from learning what one of our key partners, Get Outdoors Leadville!, did through its Rockies Rock Summer Camp program — with everything from portable hand washing stations using backcountry showers to tips and tricks for getting students to wear their masks. We also integrated the GOL! COVID practices with LCSD’s practices. We then ran trainings with the 100 Elk staff and the Project Dream and partner staff so it would be consistent for students with all staff on the same page. 

Students in the Project Dream 2nd Day Program also have access to indoor spaces. This allows students to use the indoor hand washing stations and indoor space as needed. Each classroom has been equipped with an outdoor bin or wagon (see image at top of page), which contains everything leaders need for their outdoor time including: hand sanitizer, sunscreen, sit pads, and reading/writing materials.

Q: How is it going for you now?

LCSD: It’s going pretty well. Families continue to be grateful for the childcare element as well as the academic support and enrichment. Each cohort has an indoor space where they do academics (bear in mind that temperatures in the winter are often below zero, so doing online learning on Chromebooks in the snow was not super viable!). They then spend part of most days outdoors doing outdoor play and activities. 

Some of the logistical challenges have been cold weather (though we’ve been fortunate to have a very mild fall/early winter considering our mountain location at 10,200 feet in elevation) and students without adequate warm clothes. We have been running “Taking Kids Outdoors” (TKO) trainings for teachers and the staff of local partners so they can learn all the basic skills required for teaching outdoors. We used the class packs to help with this, and last week we ran a winter-specific training with the Project Dream 2nd Day staff. Fortunately, our outdoor spaces are very close to the indoor spaces which allows us to move back and forth as needed due to weather.

An additional programmatic challenge has been aligning academic expectations from classroom teachers with the on-the-ground realities of 2nd Day programming. We all are working together to create what is best for the students — and this requires a high degree of flexibility and adaptability.

Finally, the district briefly went to red mode (entirely at-home) before Thanksgiving due to staffing shortages. While it proved unfeasible to get a plan together to continue outdoor programming that week, the closure compelled us to develop a plan in case this happens again. The plan for the future is for Project Dream 2nd Day crew leaders, who would be doing meal deliveries to neighborhoods during red mode, would remain for two hours to provide outdoor programming onsite.

Q: Are teachers and students enjoying being outside?

LCSD: Yes. Most students loved going to 100 Elk — they essentially got to go to day camp every other day for the first six weeks of school.  Due to the way we’ve structured this, teachers aren’t really outside, since we’ve hired additional staff (from 100 Elk) to run the outdoor programming. 

Students are also enjoying being outdoors for enrichment clubs. And, our Project Dream leaders love being outdoors with students. A new favorite activity of kids is “playing in the forest.” Even though the forest is fairly small, they feel like they are in a very remote place. Many leaders have been using “playing in the forest” as a reward for finishing their academic work.

Q: What is next? Do you think you will continue to use outdoor learning as part of your overall approach after COVID is over?

LCSD: Definitely. Given outdoor learning is not new to our district, we will definitely continue it after COVID is over. I think a lot of learning, particularly about flexibility in scheduling and the value of smaller group sizes, will influence the way we do outdoor learning in post-COVID. And, we’ll have the additional outdoor classroom set-ups and supplies ready to go!

National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative

The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative supports schools and districts around the country in their efforts to reopen safely and equitably using outdoor spaces as strategic, cost-effective tools to increase physical distancing capacity onsite and provide access to abundant fresh air. The Initiative seeks to equitably improve learning, mental and physical health, and happiness for children and adults using an affordable, time-tested outdoor approach to keeping schools open during a pandemic.