From behind their masks, East Lyme students begin school
It’s their first time back since start of pandemic
East Lyme — “Good morning!” East Lyme Middle School Teacher Thomas Spranklin said cheerfully Monday morning as he welcomed students and helped direct them where to go after their parents dropped them off.
“I’m really excited,” he said about the first day of school.
Spranklin said he didn’t realize how happy he would feel until he saw the first student arrive on Monday. He said it’s been tough trying to come up with the schedules and plans and sort through the details for the school reopening, but the minute he saw that first student come in, he realized: “OK, that’s why we’re doing this.”
Like other students across the region, those here are returning to school after learning remotely since March.
The district is following a hybrid model in which about half of the students will go to school Mondays and Tuesdays, while the second half of the students learn at home. Then on Thursdays and Fridays, the first half of the students will stay home on distance learning, while the second half goes to school. All students will learn remotely on Wednesdays.
On Monday morning, staff directed a long line of cars through the parent drop-off area at the back of
the school and, in spaced out intervals, told parents when it was their turn for students to leave the vehicles and head in to school.
Students wearing masks, from solid-colored ones to those in patterns of paw prints, camouflage, shapes and a smiley face, said goodbye to their parents and headed up the stairs to the middle school.
School buses, operating at reduced capacity, also took students to the bus drop-off area at the front of the school.
East Lyme parent Chris Toth said she felt both excited and nervous for her sons, Owen and Henry Garabedian, to go back to school.
Along with the usual backto-school preparations, Toth said this year she had to think about giving them back-up masks and something for storing their masks.
“There was a lot of communication from the schools about different protocols and different procedures and guidelines so we had a lot of that to go over with them,” she said. Henry, as a fifth grader, is also new to the school, so he had an added piece of newness, she added.
Henry and Owen, a sixth grader, both said they felt excited to go to school and see their friends.
Toth said a friend reminded her to take a photo of them in their masks before the start of school, “because it’s going to be part of their history.”
Kelly Trusilo said she felt good that her daughter was heading back to school and also “a little nervous, but more so because she’s a new middle schooler than the coronavirus.”
Superintendent Jeffrey Newton, who was waiting for school buses to pull up to the front entrance of school Monday morning, said the district is following a host of safety precautions as part of its reopening plan, such as personal protective equipment and signage and floor markings. Staff will discuss with children the expectations around social distancing and mask wearing.
Newton said it’s wonderful to see the kids return to school.
“I was at the high school this morning, and it just was great to have kids back in the building,” he said. “It makes such a difference."
He added that as the students file into the building, it "takes that anxious moment away."
East Lyme Middle School Principal Jason Bitgood said the school’s hallways have been divided into two directions, with arrows and footshaped cut-outs to direct students. He said the relatively new school has a lot of room in it and does not have lockers in the hallway, so there won’t be congestion.
He said the middle school’s philosophy is to group kids into “teams,” which helped the school structure its cohort model for this year. Eating areas in the cafeteria have been spaced out, and each team will have a dedicated spot for lunch. Students will stay with the same cohort all day.
He said the school’s teachers and staff will review the safety protocols that need to be part of students’ daily routines, including the three big elements of social distancing, wearing masks, and washing their hands or using hand sanitizer.
“We also want to keep the culture of just a great school where kids come, and they’re excited and they’re engaged,” he added. “We don’t want them to come under the circumstance of worry to school.”
He said teachers and staff have worked so hard on the reopening of the school and want students to feel comfortable and make connections with teachers and their peers.
To make students feel comfortable at school, Bitgood was wearing a laminated photo of himself, so students would see there is person behind the mask. He said if the idea — which some doctors and nurses are using for their patients — is well-received, more staff will wear photos of themselves.
“We’re just super-excited to have kids back,” Bitgood added. “We want them to be engaged. We want them to be happy. If they go home and say, ‘Mom and dad, I love my teachers and I met a couple of friends,’ that’s really all we’re after today and the rest of it were going to build into.”