INDIANAPOLIS — Ben Davis High School, like others in the Indianapolis area, is getting ready to bring students back to school for full-time, in-person learning. Classes for everyone, every day, begin when students return from spring break on April 5.
For the first time this school year, English teacher Samantha Garcia will have almost all her students in the same classroom at the same time, five days a week.
"Personally, I feel I will be safe," Garcia said.
She went on to explain that she and many coworkers have been vaccinated for COVID-19. The school has also expanded its safety protocols.
"They are going to be — I believe — safer in this building than they are outside," said Principal Sandra Squire.
Until now, Ben Davis, like many other high schools, used a hybrid schedule. Students came to class two days a week and studied from home the other three.
Bringing everyone back for classes every day of the week is, in effect, doubling the number of students in the building and making social distancing a bigger challenge.
Classrooms have additional desks arranged to the new 3-foot social distancing recommendations. There is assigned seating to help with contact tracing if needed.
In the library, students will work individual cubicles. Class changes are staggered so 2,900 students aren't crowding the hallways all at once. Teachers will keep them moving.
"We are out in the hall. We are saying, 'Come on, get to your class'," Squire said. "No restroom breaks. They are not stopping at lockers. They are moving to their next class."
Squire said the cafeteria is her biggest concern.
The cafeteria was expanded to fill three rooms. Individual assigned desks have replaced the big communal tables. Social distancing has replaced socializing.
"Lunches use to be a place of joy," she said. "High schoolers would talk and they would joke with each other.
All that has changed with the COVID-friendly safety precautions.
"Our lunches are silent — very silent."
It's very different, but a big step closer to getting school back to normal.