Principals report little disruption to classes for COVID compliance

It’s almost one month into the school year and so far the mask mandate and social distancing requirements have not hampered learning on campus.

“Things have been smooth and students are complying in wearing masks and keeping each other safe,” said Melanie Teemant, principal of Garrett Junior High School. “I know it is not what they dreamed of coming back to school, but they have made the best of it and are very happy to just be back in school.”

The 2021-2022 school year started Aug. 9 and all students, teachers, employees and visitors are required to wear face masks inside the buildings and on all district school buses. Social distancing between students, when possible, is also being encouraged.

“Being able to have the students attend school in-person is so important and has already made a huge difference from last year, so we can easily navigate and deal with the mask mandate and social distancing guidelines in order to instruct our students in the classroom,” said Ben Day, principal of Mitchell Elementary School.

Day also said the mask mandate hasn’t affected too much of what the school does “instructionally.”

“The students are able to participate in lessons and activities just as they would without masks, so the mask mandate hasn’t slowed us down at all,” he said. “Social distancing hasn’t slowed us down much either.

“We’ve had to be mindful and strategic of a few things, particularly with how we organize small group work, instructional interventions and how students sit in the lunchroom, but otherwise we aren’t allowing the social distancing to stop us from doing what we need to do to reach our students.”

Boulder City High School Principal Amy Wagner said the school year has been busy with the new protocols but it’s also been good.

“It’s so good to see students on campus even though it looks different with them (students, teachers and employees) wearing masks, but everyone is excited to be back on campus,” she said.

Wagner also said there have been some health and safety issues the school has had to navigate through.

“We have had to place some students in a temporary distance education space based on health and safety protocols, but everybody has Chromebooks and we’re all rolling with the flow,” she said.

Wagner said she and the staff are moving forward with planning homecoming and other student events as well as enjoying the return of sports.

“We’ve had two football games and those were awesome. … We’re pretty much doing everything,” she said. “It just looks different.”

Contact reporter Celia Shortt Goodyear at cgoodyear@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow her on Twitter @csgoodyear.