Coronavirus is known as the pandemic that is sweeping the world. So far, there have been 20,960 confirmed Covid cases in King County alone, but as the number of cases continue to drop, the idea of resuming in-person school is becoming more likely. The school board and staff of Tahoma School District have been working hard on how to safely get students back in the classroom as quickly as possible.

“The plan was for all schooling to be remote for the first 9 weeks [but] we’ve been watching our numbers, and they’ve been getting low enough that there’s a chance we could pursue opening schools even sooner than the 9 weeks. We have been instructed to start with younger kids first, so it would definitely be a phased in approach”, Mr. Gaston, the principle of Tahoma Elementary explained. 

Although a specific schedule has not yet been decided on, there are many different ideas rolling around on what the potential schedule will look like, once everyone is back in the classroom.

“Of course we don’t know, for sure, but my best guess [is] that we are looking to roll into a hybrid schedule possibly  as soon as the end of this quarter. We would definitely have to wear masks”, Mr. Duty, Tahoma High School principal said. 

In order to meet the CDC guidelines, Duty, along with countless other staff have been hard at work deciding how to best meet these standards.

 “We probably wouldn’t have lunches at school, have minimal passing times, lots of hand washing stations and students and teachers would have to wear masks. It wouldn’t be a full day either. Students would likely only attend for a half day” Duty expressed.

Many students are brainstorming various ideas on how to keep everyone safe, should in-person school resume. Freshman Gina Bach thinks that if anything, people are under-reacting to the Coronavirus.

“A lot of kids will not listen, because there are [many]kids that think masks are stupid, and they don’t agree with the precautions that people are taking, but it’s going to be a very long process and I think it would be a bad  idea if kids don’t wear masks”, Gina explained.

For more information, please visit the Tahoma School District reopening website: https://www.tahomasd.us/our_district/school-year_calendars