In many ways, Thursday was a typical first day of classes at Yorkville Grade School.
Hallways and doors were awash in bold primary colors.
Yellow buses rolled up around 8:15 a.m. to deliver pint-size students wearing squeaky clean sneakers and giant backpacks.
Parents who dropped off their kids snapped pictures with smartphones and grabbed last-minute kisses.
A kindergartner clung to Mom as tears rolled down her cheek under tiny pastel glasses.
And of course, teachers stood outside their classrooms, welcoming new students with warm words and wide smiles.
Only on this day, face masks slightly muffled those greetings and hid those smiles.
And instead of offering hugs, these educators bent down and squeezed hand sanitizer into each outstretched hand.
Then, one by one, the masked and perhaps nervous kids marched into a new world of learning — into classrooms, also brightly decorated but devoid of rugs and group tables, and sat down at their assigned desks that faced forward in rigid lines and were exactly six feet apart.
This is the year of COVID, after all. And the fact there were even kids in these classrooms on Aug. 20, 2020, is itself unique to our area, as most districts in the Fox Valley decided to start the school year with remote-learning only.
Which puts all eyes on schools like Yorkville Grade School.
Even as “the sticks were falling all around us,” noted Principal Emily Lech, School District 115 leaders decided to forge ahead with plans to not only offer hybrid and online only, but face-to-face instruction five days a week, with half- or full-day options.
Lech, who lives in Elmhurst and put her three children in a private school after that district went remote-only, understands how important it is for kids to be in front of their teachers. But she also knows the extra challenges larger districts and bigger schools face.
The school has about 200 students in its K-3 classrooms, making it not only the oldest but smallest school in the district. And that in turn creates more opportunities to implement and maintain safety protocols and procedures, she said, adding the district and community itself has also put in the hard work to be able to safely open classrooms in all Yorkville buildings.
At Yorkville Grade School, about 53% of the school’s students have chosen on-site all day, about 18% hybrid-half days, with the rest opting for e-learning only.
“I’m just so excited to be back,” said kindergarten teacher Stephanie Anderson, who was looking forward to this day since personally delivering good-bye gifts to each student last semester after COVID unexpectedly altered the way our kids learn.
Anderson’s enthusiasm, no doubt, echoes the sentiments of colleagues everywhere who, stuck in the Education Twilight Zone since mid-March, are now in front of kids again.
On this opening day in Yorkville, where classes will be staggered for the first four days, all appeared orderly and calm, with teachers mostly focused on helping students feel comfortable and acclimated to the school’s new look and feel.
Kids must maintain social distance inside the building, for example, and use the same desks. Classes will also be as self-contained as possible, with librarians, music and art teachers rotating into classrooms, where the children will also eat their lunches when the weather does not permit them to go outside.
And even though face coverings are required indoors, plenty of “mask breaks” have been built into the day, including two hours of outdoor activity – again, weather permitting – in areas that have been broken down into zones.
Indeed, we weren’t even an hour into this first day when a second-grade classroom convened in a grassy and shaded Zone 7, where teacher Nicole Ledesma led a Q&A with her students about the new year.
How recess is going to work was one of the first questions brought up. Which may have something to do with the fact a third-grader half-day class — some parents just want to dip their toe into the water, says Lech — was enjoying the nearby playground equipment.
And on the blacktop just yards away, Anderson’s class sat adequately spaced and cross-legged on their new outdoor mats in Zone 2, masks safely contained in small individual bags that would hang on the fence to keep them as clean as possible.
“Great!” is how most of her kindergartners responded when the teacher asked how they felt on this first day of school.
While these youngsters may not be able to hug fellow students or their teachers, “we don’t want to lose the joyful learning” that has defined the school, insisted Lech, who has encouraged staff to “continually promote social distance ways of showing love and friendship.”
Unfortunately, she added, there will be some educational goals and philosophies – such as flexible learning – that will need to be “dialed back.” And there won’t be as many group activities that bring the student body together, which was always a source of pride for this little school.
There will, however, be bumps. And how those hiccups are handled will be the real test, say officials, who also realize teachers, staff, students and parents all have to be flexible and have understanding and patience or in-person learning has no chance of working.
Rob Orth is one of those parents who, despite his own misgivings about “going out anywhere” with the virus still so prevalent, gave daughter Lucy a big hug and turned her over to first-grade teacher Valerie Rizio on this not-so-normal first day of school.
“Yes, I’m nervous,” he admitted. “But I trust the district knows what they are doing.”