AVON, Ind. — Avon Community Schools were the first district in Indiana to close classrooms and switch to remote learning in March after a student at Hickory Elementary tested positive for the coronavirus.
Wednesday, they became the first to reopen their schools.
Avon mother Latoya Gray had no problem putting her child on the bus and sending him back into the classroom.
"I've been talking to the kids about social distancing, wearing your mask, get your hand sanitizer,” Gray said after her son boarded the bus. “Everybody's on board with that. So, as long as they’re on board with that, it's going to be a good day, a good school year, at least we're hoping for it anyway."
Unlike many other districts across the state, Avon did not delay the start of the new school year.
"I knew that when we went to school not to be super scared or talk about it, just kind of be calm and focus on what you're doing," said Avon fifth grader Samia Warner after her mom picked her and her sister up at the end of the first day of classes. "Everyone knew to keep their distancing, to wear their masks."
"We had to be very social distancing,” Samia's younger sister Ava, a third grader, said. “We washed our hands a lot."
Families and students had the option to go to school in-person five days a week or go completely online.
Students can change their mind either way through August 7.
The district reports about 85 percent of families in Avon sent their kids back to the physical classrooms.
Avon High School acknowledged traffic flow problems on day one and promised a new plan in place for Thursday.
But students we talked to had few complaints, even students who were hesitant to go back in the classroom.
"I was terrified going into the first day,” Avon High School junior Alex Brahos said. “I was worried that nobody was going to wear masks, teachers were going to be careless about letting kids do whatever they wanted. It was a lot stricter than I expected and I liked that. So, it's nice but we have to be careful; masks on all the time. Nobody really questioned that. All of us knew that this is what we had to do. We're working together to defeat a pandemic here."
While Brahos cautiously elected in-person classes, his parents chose remote learning for his two younger brothers in grade school because one of them is diabetic.
The state mandate requires staff and students third grade and up to wear masks at school.
“I wore it all day at my kindergarten,” Ethan Pierson said after his first day of school. “They had mask breaks."
Anyone who tests positive for coronavirus will be quarantined 14 days before returning to school with contact tracing done by the Hendricks County Health Department.
Neighboring Brownsburg begins in-person classes Thursday, as does Greenfield-Central. Indianapolis Washington Township and Beech Grove also begin school Thursday, but with virtual classes only.