A group of 20 parents, students and other concerned community members on Wednesday evening rallied outside the St. Vrain Valley School District Educational Services Center to protest SVVSD’s recent decision to begin the school year in an online-only format. 

St. Vrain school board members did not acknowledge the protests going on outside but yelling and cheering could be heard inside the boardroom.

A group of 20 parents, students and other concerned community members on Wednesday evening rallied outside the St. Vrain Valley School District Educational Services Center to protest SVVSD’s recent decision to begin the school year in an online-only format. 

Parents and students repeated “give us a choice” as they urged the school board meeting insideto reconsider its decision and allow students to attend school in person. 

The rally was organized via a social media campaign and connections among parents who are upset with the district for not keeping with the part of its mission that speaks to parental partnerships. In this case, parents want the district to poll them to hear what they want. 

“We want choice,” said parent Penny Hodges. “We are in phase III in Colorado according to the epidemiologists. To their guidelines that means that we can have hybrid choices at least and we are not being given that choice. The parents were never polled, the kids were never polled and we just feel like we haven’t been heard. Our kids are the ones who are going to carry the burden of this.”

Social media polls have gone out among parents and Hodges said she knows of more than 1,000 families who want a choice. 

“They blindsided us and gave us no clue they were headed in this direction. And they won’t even talk about it,” said a parent who voiced her concern to the board but refused to give her name. 

Many participants at the rally were reluctant to provide their names for fear their students might be impacted by their words. 

Parents said they have reached out to the district on several occasions and received an automated message from Superintendent Don Haddad thanking them for writing and voicing their concerns. Dr. Don Haddad, in a phone call Thursday morning stated that he responds to all of his email and “has never used an automated message in his life.”