Return to school updates

SIX FEET OF SEPARATION — Classroom desks are placed six feet apart, ensuring that all students and staff will be able to socially distance during classes. There are around 12 to 14 desks per classroom, depending on the

size of the room. (Photo courtesy of Ellen Reilly)

BACK TO THE BUILDING

Students and staff prepare for the long-awaited return to school

HERAN ESSAYAS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

After months of waiting for school to open, students are now able to go back to in-person learning. For many of them, it will be their first time entering the building this school year—for some, it will be their first time ever.

FCPS plans for seniors and freshmen to return on March 2, while juniors and sophomores will return on March 9. Students will go forth with the hybrid schedule, in which students with last names beginning with A-K will be in person on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and those with last names L-Z on Thursdays and Fridays. Students will attend concurrent synchronous virtual classes on the days they’re not in the building.

Originally, high school students were slated to return on Jan. 26, but an increase in COVID-19 cases and lack of preparation from FCPS prompted the school board to further delay in-person instruction. After the Feb. 2 school board work session, members decided to return all students who want inperson instruction by March 16.

“I’m excited to go back to school because I can see most of my friends who I haven’t seen in almost a year. I really miss the social aspect of school where I got to have fun conversations with my friends,” senior LanAnh Dang-Vu said. “Online learning is really exhausting without the social aspect, since all we can do is just go to class, learn and repeat.”

At McLean, classrooms are set up to hold as many desks as possible while maintaining a six-feet distance. Around 60% of students are planning to do hybrid learning, while around 40% will remain entirely online. About 100 students chose to not attend McLean this year. The hybrid schedule allows for enough classroom space to accommodate every student who opted for hybrid learning, but limited capacity in each classroom makes it difficult for online students to change their choice.

“Students are able to turn to virtual school, but it’s difficult to switch to inperson because it depends on how many seats are in each class,” Principal Ellen Reilly said.

In addition to the seating capacity, numerous mitigation measures are in place in the building. Along with mandatory social distancing and masks, students and staff must follow safety guidelines, one of which is only using the water fountain to fill up water bottles using the filler. “When you walk into the building, you’ll see signs that say ‘stay six feet apart.’ Bell Schedule (starting March 2) 1st/2nd 8:20-9:45 3rd/Highlander Time 9:55-11:15

Lunch A 11:15-11:45 5th/6th 11:45-1:15 5th/6th 11:25-11:45 Lunch B 11:45-12:15 5th/6th 12:15-1:15 5th/6th 11:25-12:15 Lunch C 12:15-12:45 5th/6th 12:45-1:15 5th/6th 11:25-12:45

Lunch D 12:45-1:15 7th/8th 1:25-2:50

There will be hand sanitizer dispensers and plexiglass in front of office staff and each teacher’s desk,” Reilly said.

The cafeteria will have individual desks six feet apart, which will have QR codes on them meant for contact tracing. Per usual, students are not restricted to eating in the cafeteria; non-academic areas and outdoor seating will still be available during lunch and will have QR codes as well. Until students and teachers adjust to in-person learning, students will remain in their second period for HT Flex.

So far, there have been relatively few COVID-19 cases in FCPS schools, prompting officials to believe that there will be minimal spread as long as mitigation practices are followed correctly. According to FCPS, from Sept. 8 to Jan. 30, only 7% of in-person students and staff tested positive for COVID-19, and 90% of those cases were contracted outside of FCPS buildings.

Despite these statistics and the beginning of teacher vaccination, there is still some uncertainty about how COVID-19 might spread at school. Given that this is the first large-scale attempt to reopen FCPS schools, ensuring the health and safety of students is the biggest priority.

“I know that teachers will be vaccinated by that time, but we’re still transmitters. We still worry about [students] getting sick. Even though [the vaccine] is 95% effective, it’s all still new to us,” Reilly said. “I think the education and academic part will be fine, but we always worry about the health of everybody.”

Students are worried about their safety during the school day as well, especially during the parts of the school day when they are outside of their classrooms.

“I really don’t know how the school is going to be able to socially distance everyone, especially since the hallways aren’t that big when people walk to and from class,” Dang-Vu said. “Also during lunch, when people have to take their masks off to eat and everyone is crowded in one big room, I don’t know how they’re going to prevent the spread with that.”

Senior Saankya Gundlapalli shares these concerns, prompting her to choose to continue with online learning. Believing that it’s impossible to ensure overall safety, Gundlapalli felt it would be easier to stay home.

“I think that COVID-19 will spread because it’s a huge crowd of people that see each other every day, and you can’t stop those people from seeing others,” Gundlapalli said. “It’s just not safe.”

With all of the uncertainties about the spread of COVID-19, students are skeptical about the success of returning to school.

“Honestly, I don’t know if schools will be able to successfully return since there are so many aspects needed to make it work. Sure, they can enforce social distance rules, but since they can’t control what students do outside of school, many students could still spread COVID-19 during school,” Dang-Vu said. “I really hope they can figure something out though.”

While some students are excited about returning to school for the social aspect, others chose to remain online because the benefits of online school outweighed the benefits of returning to school. Since the school year is more than halfway done, some students wish to finish this year the way it started.

“I feel like the return to school is definitely a step in the right direction for the students, especially the seniors, even though I’m personally going to be online,” senior Andy Min said. “Although it would be great to see all my friends and teachers again, I personally want to limit risks to exposure. I’m currently pretty acclimated with the online learning environment and also wouldn’t want to wear a mask for seven hours and have to distance myself from my friends, so I thought it would be best to continue online.”

In preparation to return to the building, students should make sure that they understand all of the mitigation rules and prepare to follow them. Reilly emphasized how important it is that all students follow social distancing and mask requirements in order to keep teachers and students safe.

“Come with your face mask, and I’d probably have a hand sanitizer with me and some wipes, just because you want to wipe down if you’re going to have lunch or share something,” Reilly said. “Know the rules, and be ready to come to school and try to have it as normal as we possibly can.”

Though the return to school may look different than students expect, Reilly is hopeful about the outcome.

“I think that the socialization is going to be good, that you’re going to have at least some normalcy back in your life,” Reilly said. “I think it’ll be nice just to talk to people again and to see people’s faces again—I think that’s going to be the best part of it.”