The Rockwood School District welcomed back nearly all its 20,499 students to its buildings on Aug. 23.
And despite a summer of controversary over the district’s face mask policy, which requires everyone to wear masks indoors, principals at schools serving Eureka said they experienced no problems enforcing the rule.
“Ultimately everybody wants the same thing – we want our kids in school in person,” LaSalle Springs Middle School Principal Aaron Wilken said. “I feel like the community is pretty united in the fact that everyone wants their kids in school in person. This is just one of those things we have to do to make sure that can happen. Never in two years of masking now have I had a kid refuse to put a mask on.”
The district started last school year with every student learning virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students and staff members eventually returned to buildings with a mask-wearing requirement.
After making masks optional during summer school, Rockwood officials reinstated the mandatory wearing of masks before the 2021-2022 school year began. School officials said after announcing the mask policy, Rockwood had parents of 63 elementary students decide their children would take online classes only this school year. About 40 middle school and 199 high school students are taking at least one virtual class this school year.
“Our kids want to be here, our staff wants kids here,” Eureka High School Principal Corey Sink said of not having problems with students not wearing masks at school. “We’re doing what we need to do to make sure we’re all safe and in person.”
Wilken said it was exciting to see students get back into classrooms.
“My favorite part is just getting back with the kids, seeing them interact with each other,” he said. “The enthusiasm of the kids is why we’re really in the business.”
Blevins Elementary
Blevins Elementary School Principal Hector Ramirez said the only hiccup he experienced when school resumed was how students arrived and departed from the building.
There are 420 students attending in-person classes at the school at 25 E. North St. in Eureka, with 10 students receiving online-only instruction this year, Ramirez said.
“We had a couple of issues we had to work through with arrival and dismissal, but everything worked itself out as the week went by, but the kids were excited,” said Ramirez, who is in his first year as principal at Blevins. “Teachers were excited. I just couldn’t have asked for a better start at Blevins.”
Ramirez said he attributed some of the problems with student pickup and drop off to the increase in parents driving their children to school. Because of a bus driver shortage, Rockwood has asked parents when possible to drive their children to school.
“I think the first day we had some traffic backed up,” he said. “It only got better as the days went by and parents started to figure out what dismissal looked like.”
Because of the reduction in bus routes, Rockwood students who live within a mile from school and who have a safe way to walk to the building are not riding a bus.
Ramirez said Blevins has a larger number of students walking to school this year because of the change.
“We had to have some crosswalk support to start out the school year with the kids who are walking up. We’re still kind of tweaking and making sure that everybody’s safe outside the Blevins property line,” he said.
Ramirez said he did have some nervous energy when the school year began, but he has settled into his new role.
“Everybody here is so welcoming, from the parents to the staff, that it just felt like home,” he said.
LaSalle Springs Middle
LaSalle Springs Middle School, which enrolls students from Eureka and Wildwood, has 881 students attending classes in person with six students receiving online instruction only, Wilken said.
Every student may ride a bus to the school at 3300 Hwy. 109, but Wilken said several parents are taking their students to and from the building.
Students now are using lockers and changing clothes for physical education classes again, practices that were suspended last year because of COVID-19.
Wilken said students are allowed to work closer together in classrooms this year as the social distancing space has been reduced to 3 feet. Groups also may gather if everyone wears a mask, he said.
He said he likes seeing students working side-by-side.
“It’s something we didn’t do last year,” Wilken said. “I walk in a classroom now and kids are able to get closer together and work in small groups. It’s exciting to see that stuff because that feels normal for kids.”
Eureka High
Eureka High School was a little hotter than usual when 1,727 students showed up for in-person instruction. Fewer than 20 students are enrolled in the district’s online-only learning model, Sink said.
He said it took longer than expected for the building’s air-conditioning units to cool some rooms as students and staff filled hallways and classrooms.
“I’ll say that we had some HVAC problems,” Sink said. “You’re cruising along, there’s not a lot of people in the building, things are going good, then all of a sudden, it’s 100 degrees with 110 percent humidity and now we’re having to work (the air conditioning) overtime because there are 2,000 people in the building,”
Sink said a special treat helped students deal with higher-than-normal temperatures.
“First day, we actually had popsicles waiting for the kids,” he said.
Eureka High students have a new class period this year called “academic lab.” Students attend the labs twice a week to either receive additional instruction, make up course work or work in small groups on class projects. It also can be a time for clubs to meet, Sink said.
“This is an iteration of Flex,” he said, referring to a class period that was more loosely defined for students during previous school years. “This is more structured than what Flex was; it is really purposeful. We put a lot of thought into this.”
Sink said while he noticed more parents in the arrival and dismissal lines, this year any junior who wanted a parking pass was able to get one because of additional spots freed up after the construction of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) building.
“We’ve been able to accommodate both seniors and juniors with student parking, and that’s working really well,” he said.