For the first time in a little more than a year, almost all students in first through fifth grades returned to their classrooms together at Davis and Lane Schools on Monday.
The long-planned return featured all of the safety protocols that have served as a foundation for part-time, in-school learning this academic year, including masks and physical distancing.
Thanks to classroom conversions and expansions and additional teachers, the two former hybrid cohorts have been consolidated full-time, four days a week. Kindergarteners returned to the four-days-a-week schedule last month.
There is still a cohort of students who are fully remote.
“I visited both schools today and was thrilled to see all of the children in classes with their teachers,” Superintendent of Schools Philip Conrad said. “Everyone was excited to be back and both schools treated it like the first day of school.”
Conrad has said that John Glenn Middle School and Bedford High School will also be reopening sometime in April.
Eleazer Davis School Principal Beth Benoit was delighted with the outcome. “We are feeling good about where we are,” she stated. “We had a wonderful day as everyone was getting used to being with each other.”
“It was a busy day but a good day,” said Rob Ackerman, Job Lane School principal. “The kids adjusted great, the teachers were terrific, and it was very smooth inside the building.”
“The number one issue that everyone will have to get accustomed to is the increased traffic in the school neighborhood,” he reported. There are more cars, he said, not only because of distancing that reduces bus capacity but also since many parents are reluctant to send their children to and from school on buses.
The school, off Sweetwater Avenue, is “not that great for easy access. We are working with the police trying to see what we can do,” Ackerman said.
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
Loading ...
