STUDENTS RETURN FOR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
New lunchboxes, backpacks and facemasks filled schools in the Santa Cruz City Schools district Wednesday.
“It went incredibly well today,” Westlake Elementary Principal Clyde Curley said. “Over 475 students showed up for school. It went really smoothly.”
Parents and kids alike were excited to return to the classroom for the new school year. Many kids got a post-Zoom schooling trial run in the spring as schools reopened halfway through the second half of the school year.
Whether kids were returning for their first full year of school or are veterans of the classroom, spring’s “trial run” gave parents the confidence they needed to send their kids safely on a learning adventure.
“It was nice to be able to come back last year for a little bit. If we hadn’t come back last year, it would have been a little bit harder to make the adjustment to come back,” said Stephanie
Diaz, the mother of a Westlake second grader that would be starting his first full year since kindergarten. “Having been back for a few weeks last year, he was very excited to be able to come back and see his teacher and his classmates.”
However, one Westlake family didn’t get that trial run last school year. The Allen family, who came to Santa Cruz within the last week felt confident in having teachers and children back in the classroom.
“The school communication has been really good, and that’s key to success in just about everything,” Mark Allen a parent of a kindergartener and fourth grader. “(The kids) were excited to be here. That really helped. It’s nice to see the huge amount of parent support for getting it all done.”
Administrators are also confident after the short period of in-person classes in Spring. Santa Cruz City Schools reported no spread in COVID-19 cases during the three-month period, according to Curley.
“Our experience starting back in school in person in the springtime prepared us very well for keeping the kids healthy and safe,” he said. “We have procedures in place to keep them masked while they’re indoors in classrooms and protocols in place for outdoor times when they’re unmasked so they can eat safely and play safely when they go out on lunch.”
For the kids, they had their social-emotional needs filled on campus. As parents walked their children off campus, children beamed as they talked about seeing old friends and making new ones along the way.
For kids like fourth graders Willa Butler and Eli Ritland, it was what got them out of bed in the morning and the best part of coming back to school. Eli was even ready for school an hour early, something that is very uncharacteristic of him, his mother Lori noted.
“Our kid loves school. He missed it a lot, so he was super excited,” Stephanie McCormick, who has a kid in first grade at Westlake, said. I think hopefully he can get a full year of in-person (instruction). I’m pleased with the way everything has been handled.”