Back to School...Sort of

 After a six-month hiatus due to COVID-19, Sarah finally returned to school in mid-September. The school committee chose a hybrid model for the 7th grade, since cases are low in our area, and the kids are new to the school and, in most cases, each other. Grades 8-12 are doing all-remote learning. 

Our neighbor Tara, who teaches at the school, offered to give Sarah a tour a couple of days beforehand. When I pulled into the campus, the magnitude of the effort to give students an in-person experience hit me for the first time. There were 10 event tents set up around the school, each with a handful of spread-out desks. It nearly brought me to tears.

Sarah has in-person classes on Monday and Tuesday mornings and remote the rest of the week. To give teachers more time to prepare for remote instruction, the state allowed schools to start two weeks late, so the first class was on September 16, from home for everybody. She didn't want me to take a picture of her at the desk, so I snapped one of the office light on when I returned from my walk.

You'd have to be a military strategist to follow her schedule. We are all confused! Not only is her class divided into two teams (Greylock and Everest), which is normal, but there are two cohorts (last names A-L and M-Z, which last week were renamed Hampshire and Raiders) that attend in-person classes on different days. Sarah is Greylock/Hampshire. While one cohort is in-person (synchronous), the other is remote doing asynchronous activities. Both meet on Zoom from 1-2 p.m. -- that would also be synchronous learning -- every day.

On the second day of school -- the first day of in-person classes but not for Sarah -- the school bus stopped at our neighbors' house a little after 7:00 and honked the horn. I went to the window to investigate just in time to see the bus proceed past our house. 

Moments later, I got a panicked call from Neighbor Matt. He had sent the bus on, explaining that his third-grader wasn't taking the bus and wouldn't be picked up for another hour anyway. As he stepped back into the house, it occurred to him that he may have just sent away Sarah's ride to school!

It turned out the driver was running the route for Monday/Tuesday, instead of Thursday/Friday, and a classmate of Sarah's that should have been picked up was left standing at his house. As I said, we are all confused.

The state has approved school athletics, including gymnastics, with lots of safety measures in place. The school has only varsity gymnastics, but they allow middle schoolers to participate. Tryouts were Friday, September 18. Sarah was nervous about attending, but the coach assured me it would be low-key. 

It was so low-key that Sarah left with no idea of the process or whether she'd made the team. I emailed the coach, and she said Sarah did great and was on the team. I've wondered for years whether she would have the skills, and she does! After six months with no formal practice, she was so stiff over the weekend she could barely go up and down the stairs.

On Monday, September 21, Sarah finally had her first day -- make that half-day...okay, 2 1/2 hours -- in the school building. She rode to school on a baby bus with one other classmate and had two classes, math and English.

As if things couldn't get any weirder, to make sure students who rely on free meals at school don't go hungry, the school is sending home breakfast and lunch with everyone. On Tuesday, Sarah brought home a shopping bag full of foam clamshell containers and single-serve packages. She was thrilled; I was dismayed. The packaging-to-nutrition ratio was about 2:1.

When we learned school would be at least partially remote this fall, I was counting on it being more rigorous than last spring, which wouldn't be hard. So far, it hasn't met my expectations, but this has been orientation, and the principal has assures us the substance will ramp up soon. 

This is a huge undertaking for everyone, so I'm withholding judgment for the time being. We all deserve the benefit of the doubt and patience in times like these. I'm thankful Sarah can be in-person at least some of the time and that she has gymnastics to focus on. She's engrossed in choreographing her floor routine to "The Battle of Yorktown" from Hamilton.