By FRED KRONER
So far, so good for the start of the school year in the Heritage school district.
Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the 2020 school year has little resemblance to the beginning of other years.
“It will be an adventure,” Heritage superintendent Tom Davis said.
After a teacher’s institute on Monday, students in the district returned in-person on Tuesday (except for kindergartners) for a half-day in the building followed by 90 minutes of remote learning at home.
There are some extra duties for parents each morning and Davis gave a passing grade to those involved for the opening-day responsibilities.
“It went well at start time with temp checks and symptom sheets coming in that parents are to check in the morning,” Davis said.
Dismissal on Tuesday was at 11:15. Thereafter, students – who will be in class five days a week – will leave at noon, at least until more changes are implemented. Kindergartners start to school on Thursday.
Following a 90-minute break after the noon dismissal, students are expected to spend time on school work from 1:30 to 3 p.m. each school day, which Davis said means “afternoon office hours (for teachers) and remote homework follow-up with teachers for students.
“That four hours of in-person will be good, and then afternoon is to do homework, talk with the teacher, etc. The hope is we can expand that day if all goes well.”
Bus service is available for those students who need it.
The system Heritage settled on was the third plan that was considered.
The condensed school day helped to solve one of the issues surrounding the reopening.
“The big hurdle,” Davis said, “was spacing out the lunch periods in our multi-purpose rooms at both schools, especially K-8.
“For now, it will be grab-and-go at dismissal when we start lunch and next-day breakfast.”
Heritage High School principal Corey White was pleased by the reaction of students during a Tuesday outdoor assembly.
“The students did great with social distancing and wearing their masks,” White said. “Even during the (Tuesday) assembly outside, 90 percent of our students chose to leave their masks on even though they could remove them.
“We posed a challenge to our students, especially our seniors, that if they want to have the normal school-year experiences, our staff needs their help to make sure everyone is following the policies we have in place.”
White said the reception of the temporary plan has produced little criticism.
“I haven’t heard much feedback from our parents,” White said. “Our students are adjusting to the new procedures, but were doing an excellent job when we practiced them.”
For all of the differences, White said some parts of Tuesday reminded him of the past.
“I believe (Tuesday) had the typical first day feel,” White said. “There was some nervousness, too, some of that was normal nervousness with new students and freshmen and some of that was because of the unknown in our current situation.”
An option is in place for parents of younger students who face hardships due to the early dismissal schedule.
“We reached out to the YMCA of Champaign County and they have an after-school program available at Homer for K-5 students,” Davis said.
