How do Students and Staff Feel About Being Back to School 100%?

Throughout the last year, students and staff have been in and out of the classroom. Students and staff were online until October, when the Saint Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) introduced hybrid learning. Hybrid learning is when one group of students is online while the other is in person. Then came December when students and staff were back to fully online learning. For the two and a half months after that, students were given the option after spring break, in March, to either come back four days a week or to stay online four days a week. Throughout all of these changes, there has been one constant with students and staff being back in the building: quarantines. Student quarantines have been one main issue this year along with COVID-19. With the new quarantines every day, some families are hesitant to send their children back to school.

Coming back to four days a week has been very different for every student. When students were online, some would do all their classes in their bed. Sometimes students would wake up one minute before class starts taking naps in between classes. Other students kept the relatively same school schedule from the previous school year while being at home, so the transition to fully in person hasn’t been too difficult for them. While the teachers love having all of their students back in the classroom, some of the students dread being back full time.

A History teacher at Silver Creek High School Mr. Bryon Booher has expressed his excitement about all of his students being back: “it is great to have so many students back in the classroom, for me teaching hinges on positive relationships and that is easier to accomplish in person.”

As well as Mr. Booher, there have been many students expressing their opinions about being back full time. While most are good, there are some students who would much rather be at home looking at a screen. Silver Creek sophomore Ella Vander Meyden was fully online until just after spring break. While she was nervous to come back to school, she is sure glad that she did.

Vander Meyden explains, “I was nervous because I hadn’t been at school all year but once I got to be in the school, and was able to get through one school day, I knew that I would be fine and I was excited to be back.”

As well as Mr. Booher and Vander Meyden, there have been many students and staff members expressing their opinions about being back full time. While most are good, there are some students who would much rather be at home looking at a screen.

Silver Creek sophomore Malik Roth’s family has been very careful throughout this difficult year. With Roth being back it makes his family and him nervous with the “excessive amounts of quarantines that are and have been happening.” Roth says, “I would feel more comfortable at home just so I know that I’m not putting my family in danger, if it was a normal school year [school year before COVID-19] then I would feel much better about being at school.”

Just like Roth, everyone wishes it was a normal school year. But the reality is, it’s not a normal year, however, everyone has learned how to get through this madness in their own way. Being back at school 100% was a great push to make. With students being back at school it gives them a sense of normalcy.

From the students and staff, most are glad we are back. It truly helps students to be back in the classroom as it gives them a sense that things are starting to go back to normal. As mentioned earlier in this article, most students and teachers cannot wait until we are finally able to have a normal school year with no masks, no COVID, no quarantines, and no WebEx.