Schools should “prepare for the possibility” of not returning to in-person instruction until January 2021, Gov. Jared Polis told Colorado’s 178 public school district superintendents on a statewide conference call Tuesday, Colorado Springs School District 11 spokeswoman Devra Ashby said.

Superintendents sought clarification and direction after Polis announced Monday while showing a slide, not verbally, that all public and private K-12 schools statewide are to remain closed for the remainder of this academic year to further limit the spread of the coronavirus.

“It wasn’t clear yesterday; there was some guessing, open-endedness and ambiguity,” Academy School District 20 Superintendent Tom Gregory said Tuesday. “It was left open to interpretation on that slide.”

For the fall semester, the governor advised superintendents to develop proposals for continued distance learning but also to create models that would employ staggered start times and new formats for lunch, passing periods, and other interactions that would allow for proper social distancing measures.