Private, Parochial Schools Return To In-Person Learning For 2020-21 Academic Year
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Private and parochial schools are back for in-person learning as of this morning. There's a series of half-days this week at Saint Laurence School in Upper Darby and then a break for the Labor Day holiday.
But there's some nervousness about that.
Let's take you inside Evan Peterson's fifth-grade classroom. Everybody we saw was masked-up.
There were clear plastic partitions on desks and a large one for the teacher.
Hand sanitizer seemed to be readily available. Principal Sister Maryann Bolger said she would give the school an "A" for how smoothly things went, though she did concede they have to work on social distancing in making sure the students don't cluster too closely with each other in hallways and outside.
As for Labor Day jitters, there's concern virus levels may go up because of traditional travel plans and how that could impact classroom settings.
The elephant in the room is the prospect of another shutdown.
Those are among the many things on the minds of those back in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting.
Teachers say since Friday, March 13 the anticipation for this moment had been building up.
"This is the first time some of them have been with their friends since March 13. So it's definitely an eye-opening experience for them," seventh-grade teacher Ed Peterson said.
A ring of the bell and the school year began inside the halls of Saint Laurence.
Twin teachers Evan and Ed Peterson agreed the motion and movement — the social distancing pacing and stepping and dodging -- was a job more fit for a conductor.
"Not the usual first, getting the procedures down, we have to add the new COVID procedures as well," Evan Peterson said. "Conductors a good word."
CBS3 was at Saint Laurence immediately before shutdowns took effect, when for so many in this educational ecosystem, time stood still.
Educators today say there's confidence doctors and scientists are understanding the virus a bit more.
And for a Catholic school where prayer rules the day, their success in managing the disease is partly handed over to a higher power.
Seventy percent of students are back in the building, a place full of new standards and practices. There are large fans buzzing and partitions and sneeze guards up.
Students will not be allowed to drink from the water fountains as they are covered up.
The school had 197 registered students and then picked up several more students because public schools are virtual right now.
That is definitely a trend where Catholic school officials say they've benefited from their model of returning to the classroom.