A First Day Of School Like No Other — Some Schools In Northern Maine Resume Classes
A few communities in northern Maine have already reopened. (Robbie Feinberg/Maine Public)
While most schools in Maine are still putting the finishing touches on reopening plans for September, a few communities in northern Maine that have to schedule a break for the potato harvest have already reopened this week.
As part of Maine Public’s series, Deep Dive: Coronavirus, Robbie Feinberg visited one of those districts in Aroostook County, for a preview of what school might look this fall.
After five long months of being apart, sixth-grader Charlie Pierce says she could not wait to go back to Mars Hill’s Fort Street Elementary School Wednesday.
“I was really excited to go back to school. It’s a lot different, but I’m glad to be back to see all my friends and all the teachers and everything,” Pierce says. “But it’s really different.”
Most of Pierce’s morning routine at home is the same as it ever was: wake up before the sun rises, feed the cattle outside, eat breakfast. But now before she gets in the car, Charlie and her three sisters grab their masks, and their mom, Ami, asks them a few questions: “Is everybody feeling okay? Nobody has scratchy throats or coughs? You tasted your breakfast, right?”
After they are dropped off at the school’s entrance, the students stand in a line, six-feet apart, and walk towards a teacher, thermometer in hand, for a temperature check before going to class.
Charlie Pierce says she has been okay with a lot of these changes, but some of them are hard to get used to.
“We have to keep our distance, and we have to wear a mask. And we can’t hug anybody,” says Pierce. “So It’s just really hard, and not being able to be right by your friend, it’s really different. My friends kind of really wanted to hug me.”
“We had talked about keeping our distance, because we are huggers by nature,” Ami Pierce adds, laughing. “We don’t often run into a friend where there’s not a hug involved. So yeah, I had prepped them to keep in mind where you are and what you’re doing here.”
The masks, temperature checks and social distancing measures are all part of the new procedures at Fort Street Elementary, one of the first in the state to reopen on Wednesday. The school has always come back early, in order to accommodate the three-week potato harvest break in the fall.
Read the rest of this story at Maine Public’s website.