Masked students returning to Northern Nevada classrooms

By Scott Sonner, Associated Press

Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 | 7 p.m.

SPARKS — Thousands of students began returning to Northern Nevada classrooms Tuesday for the first time since March with masks, social distancing and other precautions to help guard against the spread of the coronavirus.

Others cranked up their laptops from home in Reno and Sparks where the school district is using a combination of in-person and distance learning depending on ages and individual family choice.

Nevada’s largest school district doesn’t open until next week in Las Vegas, where only remote instruction will take place, at least for now.

The scheduled start of the new school year in Reno-Sparks was delayed a day when the August equivalent of a snowstorm forced cancellation of Monday’s classes due to concerns about unhealthy air quality driven by smoke from a nearby wildfire.

The “smoke” day was another first in the history of the Washoe County School District already scrambling to adapt to the most unusual of times.

“Obviously there is some angst and some anxiety,” Superintendent Kristen McNeill said Tuesday.

“That’s absolutely to be expected. But that’s our world today — changing every day," she said as she welcomed students and parents at Greenbrae Elementary in Sparks.

District officials had decided Monday afternoon they likely would cancel classes again Tuesday due to the wildfire before a thunderstorm rolled in, doused the flames and tapped down the smoke.

“It was the sort of very quick decision-making we’re getting used to,” McNeill said. “We know there are going to be some bumps in the road but we are going to problem-solve through those.”

Washoe County health officials urged the school board last month to follow Las Vegas' lead and conduct all instruction remotely at least into September.

Teachers protested plans to reopen schools. But the board voted to open elementary classrooms five days a week, with middle and high schools alternating between distance- and in-person learning every other day. Parents can also opt for strictly online instruction.

So far, about one-third of parents are keeping their kids at home, McNeill said.

Principal Jonna AuCoin took to the intercom Tuesday to welcome K-5 students to Greenbrae Elementary, where masks are mandatory and social-distancing is set at half the 6 feet required in high schools.

“You can see that your school looks a bit different,” AuCoin said.

Students sat on chalk Xs in a parking lot before entering the building where arrows taped on the floors designate two directions of hallway traffic.

One first-grade classroom was filled with the usual — shelves of reading books, the alphabet on the wall and a sign with each child’s name and birth date.

But each desk — topped with an apple, a milk carton and pencil box — was spaced at least 3 feet apart.

After welcoming her new first-graders, Annamarie Bezick launched the first lesson of the new school year.

“We’re going to wash our hands, pretty fun, huh?” the teacher said, calling out names to line up at the sink. “You cannot touch the person in front of you. Hold your arm out so you can tell you are far enough away.”

Jesse Cardona, who walked his 6- and 11-year-olds to school, is among parents glad classrooms have reopened after struggling to adapt to the online instruction that become uniform statewide last spring when Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered schools closed.

“I didn’t feel that worked very well," he said. “The classes seemed kind of short and it seemed hard for them to retain knowledge. Kids were talking to each other and the teacher had to keep muting them.”

Cardona wasn’t worried about his children’s safety.

“They were going stir crazy at home,” he added. “When I told them that school was starting, they jumped for joy.”