CHAMPAIGN — Parents lined up in their cars on James Street and spilled onto one lane of University Avenue, in front of Dr. Howard Elementary on Tuesday morning, ready to drop their kids off at school for the first time in seven months.
One by one, students in the cars had their temperatures taken and were ushered into the school, 6 feet apart from one another. Around 110 kids entered the gleaming new building, which has sat mostly empty since its completion this summer.
“The kids were walking up to this brand-new space they’ve never even been in,” Principal Suzanne Meislahn said. “It was exciting. It was really great. They stayed socially distant, they walked right to their classes, even though they’d never even been in the building.”
Of course, the first day didn’t go off without any unforeseen difficulties. Meislahn realized that more staff was needed outside to usher students in from their cars. A few thermometers, she said, stopped working in the cold weather.
For early-start schools like Dr. Howard, there was little way to foresee those difficulties on the first day of school of its kind. Those kinks, though, were worked out in advance for late-start schools like Garden Hills.
“Principals emailed (saying), ‘Hey, make sure you have enough people in the car-rider line,’” Garden Hills Principal Asia Fuller-Hamilton said. “That was pretty much the point that needed to be solved around the district, the car rider line and the temperature checks. But we were able to problem-solve that and get the kids in fairly quickly.”
The day was a happy one for both Meislahn and Fuller-Hamilton. For both, it was their first day meeting students in-person as their school’s principal.
Meislahn, of course, recognized some students from popping in on their virtual classes, but finally meeting kids in-person had a different kind of excitement. Telling parents they couldn’t guide their kids into school for their first day of kindergarten was heartbreaking, but she said the rest of in-person learning for the 110 or so kids who were in a school that fits 350 went swimmingly.
The time, of course, was short. The fraction of students whose parents decided to send them back to school physically are only in the building for two-and-a-half hours.
“It went by really fast. Really fast,” Meislahn said. “I did a couple of rounds of every room and when I got back, it was 9:45, and it was like, ‘Oh, dismissal’s in 30 minutes.’ I felt like we just got here and we just got settled, and it was like, ‘Oh, it’s time to get ready to go.’”
Both principals, of course, had been planning for the theoretical return to school for months. To finally see students was a reward, even through the uncertainties.
“No one, no amount of education, no experience could have prepared me for this moment,” said Fuller-Hamilton, who received a doctorate degree in 2017. “Leading during a pandemic is not for the faint of heart. It definitely requires a lot of sleepless nights.
“I think that’s definitely on the list if you’re going to lead during a pandemic, because you’re always problem-solving. You’re always trying to figure out how to keep everyone safe, you’re memorizing the safety protocol manual to make sure if there are issues, you know how to respond. The job doesn’t turn off, it doesn’t stop at 4 o’clock. We’ll be here problem-solving for another hour-and-a-half (after that time) how to make things better for tomorrow.”
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