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Cartwright School District Getting Ready To Reopen In Compliance With Governor's Order

Cartwright School District Superintendent LeeAnn Aguilar-Lawlor
Cartwright School District
Superintendent LeeAnn Aguilar-Lawlor says the Cartwright School District is ready and excited to start offering in-person classes on March 16, 2021, in compliance with an executive order by Gov. Doug Ducey.

The Cartwright School District had initially planned to keep students learning virtually through the end of the school year but is now gearing up to reopen next week to comply with an executive order by Gov. Doug Ducey.

Superintendent LeeAnn Aguilar-Lawlor admits that the news came as a shock to her district of 17,000 students and 21 schools. But she wants to assure the community that the district is not scrambling. Instead she said it’s excited and ready to reopen.  

“The No. 1 concern we have is their safety and so those mitigations of wiping down desks and extra custodial staff to make sure we are constantly cleaning, those are things parents should be expecting," Aguilar-Lawlor said. 

However, school will look very different than it did before the pandemic for safety reasons.

“We won’t have small groups of students close together. Students will still have masks. We’ll have lunch and breakfast in the classroom. We won’t be travelling to the cafeteria," Aguilar-Lawlor said. 

But not all parents feel its safe enough to send their children back to classroom. That's the situation for parent Lucy Gomez, 31. 

“The risk is really high especially in our area," said Gomez, who's currently opting to keep her 8-year-old daughters, both in second grade, learning from home. She's especially concerned for the safety of one of her daughters who has asthma and is prone to sickness. 

Gomez doesn’t feel the district has had enough time to prepare or explain to parents what in-person learning will look like. She questions how the district can keep students distanced when it has small classroom spaces with 25 to 30 kids in them. 

The Cartwright district plans to keep class sizes small and may use bigger spaces like their cafeterias, gyms and libraries if necessary, Aguilar-Lawlor said. 

Rocio Hernandez was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2020 to 2022.