Highland has smooth first day

By James Jennings
Posted 8/26/20

Highland schools kicked off their 2020-21 year with a hybrid learning model Monday.

For about half of the students, Monday was their first day of school. Tuesday was the first day for the other …

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Highland has smooth first day

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Highland schools kicked off their 2020-21 year with a hybrid learning model Monday.

For about half of the students, Monday was their first day of school. Tuesday was the first day for the other half, and school will continue with students alternating attendance days for the first few weeks of school.

Overall, Monday’s first day went smoothly, administrators reported at Monday’s school board meeting.

“I think the day went extremely well,” Superintendent Ken Crawford said. “The couple bumps we had were manageable and easy to fix.”

Elementary Principal Jane O’Leary said that school arrival went better than expected.

Upon arriving to school, students gather with their classes outside before being let into the building.

“This morning went really well,” O’Leary said. “Everybody had on a face covering, and it was very calm and not like the first day of school. They just went over and sat and talked with their friends.”

She said one of her biggest worries was that on normal first days, parents want to walk their students to their classrooms to get them settled.

“I know that parents did a great job taking pictures out front and sending their kids to their spot,” she said.

O’Leary added that lunch went well.

“That’s with half the kids,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen when we have all the kids back.”

On the whole, O’Leary said that the first day was a success.

“I debriefed with my staff at the end of the day, and really everybody said that their day was great,” she said. “They had a fantastic day.”

For the middle school and high school, there are still some kinks to work out, according to Principal Angela Hazlett.

“We had a staff meeting at the end of the day, and we’ve still got some scheduling things that we need to work out,” Hazlett said. “That’s pretty typical at the high school.

“We’re still switching classes the first three days to allow students to make schedule changes.”

Hazlett said that she had attempted to adjust the schedules so that A and B days can be “more balanced,” but it created more issues than it solved.

“The more I messed with it, the more I saw I should’ve let it lie for a while until we saw how those schedule changes played out,” she said. “That happens when you’re trying to work out family groups and bus routes.”

Hazlett said that everyone was impressed with how the students handled all the changes, including the requirement to wear face coverings.

“The positive that came out of the staff meeting was everybody’s consensus was that how awesome the kids are being about wearing face coverings and having a good attitude about things,” she said. “They are just being awesome.”

She said that, overall, the day went well.

“The students were happy to be here, and staff were super excited to see them,” Hazlett said. “We were all pleasantly surprised at how well it went.”

Board President Nate Robinson praised everyone in the district for making the first day go well.

“Thanks to everybody who has worked through this,” Robinson said. “I’m sure there are more challenges to come, but it seems like a very smooth first day, all things considered.”