'Over the moon:' For 1st time since pandemic, elementary students in Los Gatos return to school
LOS GATOS, Calif. - Some elementary students in the Los Gatos Union School District finally returned to school Monday morning; it was the first in-person instruction in the district in nearly a year.
The district's approved reopening plan calls for returning the youngest students first.
On Monday morning, students in kindergarten to second grade reported to campus, as well as some sixth graders. Students in third through fifth grades and the second wave of sixth graders will return Feb. 8.
Parents began dropping their kids off just after sunrise.
Signs of COVID-19 protocols served as reminders, as students and school staff wore masks as required. Temperatures were taken and students applied hand sanitizer before walking to their classrooms.
Still, there was a celebratory mood.
"We're over the moon, we're so excited today," said Lisa Reynolds, principal at Blossom Hill Elementary. "I've been an educator for 32 years and I've been eating, breathing, sleeping this for the last few months."
Of about 515 students, Reynolds says about 300 returned to the classroom.
Parents, along with the students they were dropping off, said they were also looking forward to this new type of first day of school.
"There are so many intangible things that you just don't get over Zoom," said Melissa Crow, a parent with two kids at Blossom Hill. "I think kids get to learn from each other and take cues from each other and they get so much energy from their teachers."
"We see a lot of procedures and policies that are done, so we are pretty comfortable," said Beth Ji, whose son is in first grade.
The Los Gatos Union School District is implementing a system they are calling "roomers" and "zoomers"; it's a hybrid model where the roomers begin in person instruction and the zoomers are online, then the two groups alternate.
The school district came under fire for allowing some of its teachers to be vaccinated, despite not being eligible.
According to the reopening plan, the district may consider shutting a school down if at least five percent of its population is infected with COVID-19 over a 14-day period.