EDUCATE

from Redstone August/September 2020

WHAT’S COOKIN

Students in Lyons go back to school – virtually the passion, skills, and community to serve our students and families effectively. We are looking forward to the first day of school and are proud to be a part of St. Vrain!” By Kate Schnepel get the social interaction a five-year-old needs. Online To help ensure that all students have what they need Redstone Review school will be a big challenge for those of us with such litto succeed in an online environment, iPads will be made tle kids,” said Nadia Auch, an LES parent. available to every student in grade K-12. The school disLYONS – The “back to school” atmos Principal Andrew Moore of LES is confident that the trict is also continuing to operate community WIFI phere and activities in Lyons are destined school can rise to the occasion. “Returning to school this hotspots, including one at LMSHS. to look very different this year, due to the year will definitely feel different. At Lyons Elementary, we SVVSD will provide drive-through breakfast and lunch significant challenges presented by the are poised to create a school climate built upon high-qualmeal distribution during in-person school closures for all stu

Schnepel coronavirus pandemic. Students at Lyons Elementary School (LES) and ity virtual instruction in short, daily bursts, complemented dents. Student meals will be served from 11 to 12:30 Monday through Thursday and a sack lunch and Lyons Middle Senior High School (LMSHS) will breakfast will be offered daily. LMSHS will be a start the school year in an online environment. meal distribution point. The 100 percent distance learning plan, an The LES Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) nounced August 4 and set to continue through at has been holding extra board meetings to plan for least September 30, is a marked change from the the year. “While we don’t have a handbook for hybrid of in-person and online learning plan comnavigating this kind of school year, our team of municated in July. parents are all creatively thinking on ways to pro Students have two options offered through the vide support to our students, families and staff at St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD): Lyons Elementary. I’d love to incorporate more art • Full-time online learning through LES or outside on the school grounds and find a way to LMSHS: This option will include whole group allow students to contribute and commemorate and small group synchronous (live, real-time) and the year as well,” said Chastidee Bolkovatz, the asynchronous (flexible) instruction, as well as inpresident of the PTO at LES. “And, of course, we dependent student assignments / work. Students are needing to rework our usual event-based who choose this option will be taught by LES or fundraising plans, and would love to remind parLMSHS teachers, and may eventually go back into classrooms if the school district determines that it is safe to move to the hybrid plan. • Full-time online learning through the St. Vrain Teachers at Lyons Elementary School, left to right:Amy Stahl, Sara Foster Barone, Dawn Lundell, Wendy Parker, Sara Pike, Shiryla Johnson, Elena Russ, and Darcey Pierce. ents and other Lyons residents to sign up to support the LES PTO when they shop at King Soopers.” More information about the back-to-school plan, including childcare options, special educaLaunchED Virtual Academy: This K-12 distance tion, school clubs, sports, and other activities, can learning program was created through a partnership bewith lots of small group instruction. At-home learning be found on the school district website at: https://corontween SVVSD and the Florida Virtual School and is tasks will build upon virtual instruction and will emphaavirus.svvsd.org/. taught by district teachers. The curriculum is delivered size reading, writing and math. At Lyons Elementary, we online through Schoology. will be using our science and leadership curriculum to pro Kate Schnepel is a freelance communications consultant who While many parents understand the need for online vide students with engaging Friday activities. specializes in work for nonprofit organizations. She is the Comlearning, it’s clear that the format presents some chal “The foundation for schools in Lyons is built upon Cremunications Secretary for the Lyons Elementary School PTO, lenges. “It’s a confusing time for parents. I felt relief that ativity, Collaboration and Community. These elements and a board member of the Lyons Community Foundation and my five-year-old would not be going back to school in a will weave their way through the virtual world as well. As Wildlife SOS India. She lives in Lyons with her husband and classroom, but at the same time I’m worried she will not we wade into these unchartered waters, we know we have six-year-old daughter.

Lyons Redstone Museum pivots during the pandemic

By Monique SawyerLang Redstone Review

LYONS – Early in 2020 the Lyons Redstone Museum began planning for Sawyer-Lang the upcoming season when we would open from May through September and welcome tourists and locals into the museum to discover and learn a little bit of Lyons’ history. We had planned a series of new and engaging programs to be held monthly at the museum and around town and looked forward to sharing these events with the public. Then the world stopped and we stopped. Questions abounded. What did this mean going forward? Would we be able to open our doors to the public? How were we going to continue to engage with the public and our community without public events? How was a non-profit organization reliant on grants, donations, and gift shop sales to operate going to survive? We took a deep breath, acknowledged what we couldn’t and shouldn’t do and looked at what we could do. We put on our “Lyons Strong” boots and hats, went to work and found silver linings when we could. First up, what could we do right away while we explored options for future programming? Answer: advertise the digital version of the Lyons Historic District Walking Tour that had been developed and launched to the public the previous summer.

The Lyons Historic District, created in April 1980, includes 15 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places constructed of locally quarried sandstone and each with its own unique history. The tour is available for viewing on your computer or mobile device through a link on our website’s Homepage or What’s New page

Students and teachers in 1910 at the Lyons School. Photo courtesy of Lyons Redstone Museum. ( lyonsredstonemuseum.com ). You can also download the free Clio app on your mobile device through which you can view not only our Lyons Historic District Walking Tour but free walking tours in cities throughout the United States ( https://theclio.com/tour/910 ). What next? In 2019 the museum celebrated its 40th Anniversary and created the Forty Years/Forty Artifacts Exhibit. Could that exhibit be converted to a virtual exhibit available to the public and how? Turns out a recently created website, virmuze.com, was our answer. Best part is the site is free for us to create and share virtual exhibits and is free for the public to access. The link to view the Forty Years/ Forty Artifacts virtual exhibit is also on our website homepage or What’s New page. As a bonus, going virtual with this exhibit gave us the opportunity to expand it with additional photographs not in the physical exhibit and to even include a video of the Guinness World Record Sketch-a-palooza event that took place in Lyons’ Sandstone Park in 2011. Going forward, the museum will be adding additional virtual exhibits in August and September. In August we launch the Lyons Cemetery History and Tour Exhibit. This tour, originally created in 2019 Continue Museum on Page 15