Newtown High School and Newtown Middle School students returned in full to school buildings on January 19 for the first time since March of 2020.

According to NHS Principal Dr Kimberly Longobucco and NMS Principal Tom Einhorn, things went well at both schools.

As previously reported in The Newtown Bee, Newtown schools switched from full in-school learning about a quarter of the way through 2020. A distance learning model was implemented. When school resumed for the 2020-21 school year, a hybrid model, with student cohorts rotating attending school on different days, was used. Younger students later returned to school in full, with the upper grades utilizing the hybrid model until both younger and upper grades were changed to remote learning for the weeks leading up to winter break.

The younger grades returned in full to schools for January 4.

A new schedule was implemented for the full student body return at NMS and NHS. The Board of Education approved the schedules in October. Part of the new schedules involves having students dismissed from the buildings earlier to pick up lunch if desired on their way out, head home, and resume lessons from home for the remainder of the day.

At NHS, Dr Longobucco said roughly 75 percent of the high school student body is now learning in the school building daily, with the remainder either opting to learn from home or absent under normal circumstances.

“The kids are thrilled. I have not seen such happy students in a very long time,” Dr Longobucco said on January 21 in a phone interview.

That morning, the third day students were back full-time in the building, Dr Longobucco said there was a fire drill. There were other fire drills held this school year, but this was the first one with all the students attending school together in person.

“They were good. Everybody moved away to where they needed to,” Dr Longobucco reflected.

Overall, Dr Longobucco said, there was an “uplifting vibe” at NHS with all of the students back. One student told her they were seeing people they had not seen since March of 2020. Teachers, she shared, are in general happier with the new schedule than not.

There were some hiccups with the full return; the first day, there was a “pretty big” parking lot backup at dismissal, Dr Longobucco said. Changes were made by Wednesday to prioritize buses leaving to pick students up at NMS after NHS, and since then, she noted, things have been smoother.

“I just think that the lunch distribution is really going very smoothly,” Dr Longobucco said, thanking Whitsons Culinary Group, the district’s food service provider, for the smooth handling of distributing both lunch and breakfast for the following day. Students “grab and go” from tables in the high school’s lobby before exiting the building, allowing for air flow and foot traffic considerations, she noted.

“It’s working beautifully, better than I could have imagined,” Dr Longobucco said.

At NMS, Einhorn said the cooperation of both its students and parents is appreciated.

“Our teachers are amazing, not only with their teaching but also with helping our students settle in. It is very similar to the first days of school in the fall,” Einhorn said in an e-mail on January 20.

Einhorn also reflected that the atmosphere at NMS has been similar to the typical first days of school in the fall.

“Our middle school cafeteria staff have been incredible, preparing lunches and setting up different places around the school for students to grab a lunch,” Einhorn shared. “We continue to ask for the patience from those parents that are picking up students as the traffic volume is higher than usual.”

Overall, Einhorn said the NMS full participation schedule had a “great start.”

Student Perspectives Shared With BOE

Newtown High School seniors Rushil Jerfy and Jillian Clure routinely share updates at Board of Education meetings as student representatives, and for the board’s January 19 meeting, they shared a report from the first day back in-full.

For Rushil, it was his first day back in the building, and he said, “I was so happy to be back.” Classes, he said, felt energetic, “and I hope it stays that way.”

After speaking with some other students about how social distancing was working, Rushil said some reported concerns about hallways.

Jillian said she noted teachers in her classes “checked in” with students to make sure they were comfortable, and she things they noticed classes felt “really full.”

Due to the new schedule, Jillian said classes felt short, and she said she liked seeing students grab lunches before leaving to take the final two classes of the day from home.