HOPE — As young children, teachers and staff members greeted each other for the first time in five months, all seemed excited to see each other on the first day of in-person classes Tuesday outside Hope Elementary School.
“I had several kids come up to me and want to hug,” said Lea Chipman, who works with the school’s technology and transportation departments. “But they have been told to stay their distance, and they did. So we did a lot of air-hugs.”
Flat Rock-Hawcreek students were on spring break when the March 20 announcement came that all K-12 schools would be closed to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Studies continued for the remainder of the school year through eLearning.
Hauser support staff member Ben Finke said several teens were happy to see their classmates after a five-month absence.
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“I missed the social interaction,” Hauser sophomore David Malott said. “I haven’t seen too many friends since March.
And since students have missed that interaction, Finke says he’s worried it might make it harder to maintain social distancing guidelines during the initial week of classes.
“But (social distancing) is part of a new normal that we all have to get used to,” he said.
At Hope Elementary, teachers and administrators met about a half-dozen times via video conferencing to discuss policies, procedures and protocol in preparation for the new school year, Principal Jessica Poe said.
There was a general consensus among teachers and administrators that, when compared with eLearning, it’s easier for young people to learn when they have one-on-one contacts with educators, said Tamara Kelley, substitute teacher coordinator and office staff.
So while normalcy appears to be returning to the Hope-area schools, Hauser principal Dr. David Wintin warns the novel coronavirus has never been predictable.
“I always felt like I had 17 different scenarios, with another 17 possible versions of that as we were moving forward,” Wintin said. “My philosophy has been that while we may have a starting point, we don’t have a finished product (in fighting COVID-19). What we are doing today may not be what we will be doing tomorrow.”
When asked about his largest concern, the Hauser principal says it’s the fact that nobody can predict what will happen a week or more from now.
“Most of it is outside of our control,” Wintin said. “It just depends on what happens in the community, and in the state at-large, with spikes in cases.”
Flat Rock-Hawcreek Superintendent Shawn Price said that if parents and other adults wear masks and maintain social distancing, it would set a strong example to younger children.
But realizing that mask wearing has become a “hot button” political issue, Flat Rock-Hawcreek School board of trustees president Patrick Walters made a recent heart-felt plea to adults throughout northeast Bartholomew County.
“For your children’s sake, please — please — please try to keep a positive attitude toward what we’re asking,” Walters said during the July 21 school board meeting.
In return, Price said it should be understood there are different situations for different people regarding mask-wearing, adding precautions being undertaken in Flat Rock-Hawcreek school district may not apply everywhere.
Poe said her community is far more positive about COVID-19 precautions when talking on a one-to-one basis.
“There isn’t the kind of negativity you see on social media when you talk face-to-face,” the Hope Elementary principal said. “It’s very, very different in person.”
For Director of Transportation and Facilities Jim Tedder, the hardest preparation has been ensuring that every seat in every classroom is at least 6 feet from the other. With a limit of 23 students per class, only essential furnishings are allowed in each classroom, he said.
“We’re also checking temperatures on the buses, and that’s going to slow us down a little bit,” Tedder said. “But as we go on, we’ll get better at it.”
Whenever students are asked their opinions about coming back to school — whether it’s after a two-month vacation or a five-month campus closing — the attitudes will always vary.
Besides his friends, Malott said he missed traditional math classes where he could get help from his teacher.
“The problem with eLearning was that things were sometimes difficult to find,” Malott said. “It was also hard to think of answers for some questions.”
Hauser freshman Faith Moss says there was nothing she liked about eLearning at home.
“I emailed my teachers twice, but they never did respond,” Moss said. “But I knew they were busy.”
And then, there are those like seventh grader Regan Mack and eighth grader Madison Hollman who feel the same way millions of secondary students feel at the start of every school year.
Vacation just went by too fast, both girls said.
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Preliminary attendance numbers from Hauser Jr.-Sr. High indicate there were about 400 in-person students on campus Tuesday, while about 70 stayed at home for eLearning, Principal David Wintin said.
At Hope Elementary, there were 399 students who came to the campus Tuesday morning, while 87 kids stayed home to take virtual classes, Principal Jessica Poe said.
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For more photos of the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. first day of school, see therepublic.com.
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