The first day of school for North Clark County looked a little different from the past two years, but it was the most normal return to class local districts have seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, students streamed into classrooms with faces not obscured by masks into buildings that were open to full capacity. It was the first time since 2019 that students started the school year without social distancing and mask precautions in place.
At Glenwood Heights Primary School, Battle Ground Public Schools Superintendent Denny Waters greeted arriving students. He made a number of stops across the district as BGPS began classes on Aug. 31.
“The first day is filled with so much optimism and that’s really what we’re feeling after the last two-and-a-half years,” Waters said.
After having to shutter in-person instruction completely in the spring of 2020 followed by a transition to hybrid learning the subsequent school year, BGPS and other local districts opened with full time, in-person instruction to kick off the 2021-2022 school year with masking and social distancing requirements in place.
“We’re still being careful, but it feels a lot more normal,” Waters said during this year’s first day.
Not having to adhere to a number of precautions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic made the return to class easier than the anxiety-ridden times of the past few years.
“There was so much emotion … whether you felt strongly for mitigation measures or you felt strongly against them,” Waters said. “Now that that’s diminished, the emotion is back where it should be, on just enjoying the first day of school.”
The effects of the pandemic aren’t completely in the rear-view mirror for the district, Waters said.
“All of us have been impacted and I think all of us have been changed in some way,” Waters said.
The district continues to handle learning loss from when schools went remote or from the hybrid model, he said.
The pandemic diminished the school experience. There were “not as many field trips, not as many assemblies,” Waters said.
He noted the current senior class began their high school careers the year the pandemic first hit and schools were shuttered.
“They’re finally getting this full-blown experience of being high school students,” Waters said.
Apart from students, Waters said the staff will also experience greater positivity this year, as they are able to do their jobs fully without the restrictions of past years.
Glenwood Heights Primary School Principal Antonio Lopez visited classes in his building on the first day of school. Like the students, Lopez said staff, too, had some nervousness ahead of the first day.
Though the nervousness was expected, Lopez said he worked with teachers for the past two weeks to prepare.
“When you’ve been planning for a couple weeks, you just know you’re ready,” Lopez said.
The first-day jitters were far better than the fears teachers and students experienced during the past few years with COVID-19.
“Those couple years during the pandemic when it was really going, it was just a lot of anxiety,” Lopez said.
For younger students in the district like those at Glenwood, Lopez said they might not have fully comprehended the reality of the pandemic.
For this year, Glenwood Heights allowed parents to drop off their children at their classrooms, Lopez said.
“It’s just such a relief for everyone to be back, to feel a sense of normalcy again,” Lopez said.
Like Waters, Lopez is optimistic the 2022-2023 school year will be a good one for BGPS.
“We’re very excited. This is going to be a great year,” Lopez said.
Like Battle Ground, Ridgefield and La Center school districts welcomed students back on Aug. 31, while Woodland Public Schools started its school year on Aug. 30. Green Mountain School began its classes Sept. 6.
