Chatham County students in grades 6-12 returned on Monday, April 19 under the Plan A format. Plan A will see students attending in-person education four days out of the week with Wednesdays remaining remote. The school will no longer be enforcing the symptom screening process or taking temperatures. Students will have to keep three feet of distance from others instead of the previous six-foot requirement. The school system also requires any students who tested positive for COVID-19, developed COVID-19 symptoms or were exposed to someone who tested positive over spring break to delay their return to school.
The Omniscient surveyed Northwood students to hear their thoughts on the return to Plan A. The 100 students who responded to the survey had varying opinions on the matter.
When asked how they felt about the return to school, 49% of the students who responded said they felt “not good.” Many of the students who were unhappy about the return cited safety concerns as the number of people in the school building will increase.
“I feel as though the vaccines have helped Covid cases significantly, but I believe the three-feet distance requirement that will begin [with Plan A] is as not safe as the six-feet distance it used to be,” sophomore Nellie Errett said.
Other students who did not like the plan said that they did not want to go through yet another change this school year.
“I find Plan B to be a kind of ideal learning plan, and many students have built habits around this plan,” an anonymous student said. “Changing the plan again so late in the year only serves to overwhelm students with another unnecessary change. Stability is important in learning, and the lack thereof with this change will only serve to further damage academic success.”
Another 8% of the students who responded expressed that they felt “really good” about the start of Plan A.
“Being back in school at least four days a week would be a good sense of normalcy since students haven’t experienced that lately,” freshman Macy Griffin said. “Personally, I’m most excited to see more friends and be able to learn hands on with the material.”
The other 43% of students who responded either said that they felt “okay” or just “good” about Plan A. Many expressed having mixed feelings about the situation.
“On the one hand it should be nice to see friends from the other group again and to learn more productively, but on the other hand, I am still worried about safety especially since there will be no more school temperature checks,” Tyler W. said.
Students were also asked how they predicted their learning and productivity would change with a full return to school. 41.4% of the students who responded said they thought their learning and productivity would stay the same, 32.3% said it would likely improve and 26.3% said they thought it would worsen.
“Online learning was hard for me,” freshman Dylan Rueda said. “[My] grades worsened [during online classes], but ever since we came back to Plan B, my grades have improved. From two days a week to four, I’ll have a better learning experience.”
“Honestly, I feel like I get more work done at home because I find there are less distractions and I feel more comfortable,” an anonymous student said. “However, I know it’s not like that for a lot of students. I also have three CCCC classes so I’m sure that makes a difference.”
Although there were mixed feelings about the return to school, many students said they were excited just to see their peers.
“Even though I’m not too happy about Plan A, I’m glad to be going back with everyone just to end off the last two months of school,” senior Nivia Alston said. “I’m also glad that we are able to actually experience somewhat of a senior year within these two months left of school.”
A large majority of the students who responded to the survey said that they did not feel it was worth it to start Plan A with only seven weeks left in the school year.
“I don’t think it makes sense to switch to Plan A with less than three months of school left,” an anonymous student said. “It would make more sense to keep school as it is for the rest of the school year. Changing to Plan A so late in the semester is only going to create more problems and more stress for tons of students.”
“I think that we could have stayed with Plan B, but I also think that it’s a good sign and exciting that we are able to start Plan A with how much better things have gotten since the beginning of this pandemic last year,” another anonymous student said. “It makes me feel more hopeful that normalcy is getting closer to what it was before even though we should still continue to be aware and careful as we move forward.”
Article and graphic by Lily Kate Witcher.
