A year ago, the sight of a school bus driver wearing a mask would have been cause for alarm.
What a difference a pandemic makes.
Masks and hand sanitizers were important backpack items on Tuesday, as the Morris School District opened for the 2020-21 academic year.
Grades K-5 will be in school each day. Grades 6-12 will alternate between two days in class, and two days online.
The district — which serves 5,200 students from Morristown, Morris Township and (high school only) Morris Plains — has posted back-to-school- and emergency closure protocols here.
A series of back-to-school webinars is here.
Classes had switched to all-virtual in mid-March as the coronavirus gained momentum. The hybrid reopening follows installation of hand-sanitizing stations throughout the district’s 10 schools, and establishment of social-distancing measures, mask rules, and staggered bus times to allow disinfecting the vehicles between runs.
Citing health concerns, the district’s teacher union joined dozens of others across Morris County expressing opposition over the summer to classroom re-openings.
Schools Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast praised teachers for helping make Tuesday “a positive day in a challenging environment.”
“It was a monumental effort to open up on time and we are very grateful to the Board of Education, parents, and community for their support and dialogue which helped us put the best possible plan together in service to our students. Our teachers have worked extremely hard preparing for this year and they did a fantastic job welcoming the students and making them feel safe,” Pendergrast said.
The superintendent acknowledged that transportation remains a work in progress.
“Transportation, arrival and dismissal are always a little challenging in the first week of school but obviously more challenging this year because we have so many car drop offs to manage with our buses,” Pendergrast said.
HOW WAS DAY ONE? LET US KNOW!
Parents, how was your child’s first day? How did things work with the new schedules and health precautions? If your kids started this semester online, how smoothly did that go? Please drop us a line in the comment section below, or on our Facebook page, or via email.
This story has been updated to include comments from the district superintendent.
MORE COVERAGE OF THE MORRIS SCHOOL DISTRICT
