Last year, when the pandemic started, it caused lots of shock and panic for people. When the COVID-19 outbreak reached the United States, the cases grew rapidly along with the number of deaths. Last year we were told that we were going to be gone from school for two weeks and then we’d return to school; however, we ended up with a very long summer because it just wasn’t safe to come back.

Safety measures have been put in place to help keep staff and students here at TJ safe due to the pandemic.

TJ’s Ready to Learn Plan talked about the usage of the bathrooms at TJ. “All teachers will utilize the e-hallpass system. This system allows us to limit the number of students accessing certain areas of the building and will therefore help us to maintain adequate social distancing.”

Teachers create the pass for the student and then the student must have permission to leave once their pass is active. Some bathrooms may be limited due to the capacity and location. Restrooms will be supervised by an administrator during passing periods in order to make sure that the students are not going past the capacity.

“We have directional hallways so that we don’t have people running headfirst into each other, ” said principal Dr. Dania Freudenburg. “We increased the number of lunch periods from last year so now we have two students per table. There are now six lunches in total, and between every lunch period, all of the tables and chairs are wiped down with a Clorox solution, then they’re sprayed with static cleaners after all of the lunches are finished.”

Once the passing period is over, the banisters on the stairways are cleaned in order to help maintain the safety for students and staff here at TJ.

TJ is only planning to increase the safety measures if the numbers of cases increase.

“The only thing that might increase if there would be a huge outbreak, would be we may need to go full virtual. But so far we’ve done well.”

The virtual academy is an option for all year, however, the current hybrid model does not have a definite timeline.

“249 students are currently enrolled in our Virtual Academy. Group 1 has 475 students, group 2 has 466 students enrolled.”

If a snow day happens later in the year students will be taught online.

“I think all of the teachers have been really impressed with how well students are doing with those procedures,” said Dr. Freudenburg.

“To me, it shows a lot of maturity. That students are taking this seriously and they’re taking each other’s health seriously. They’re taking both seriously which I think is amazing.” added Freudenburg.

Assistant principal Mr. Cole Albright also talked about the safety measures here at TJ.

“We’re making sure that students are wearing their masks correctly by covering both their nose and mouth. Any students that don’t have a mask, we’re giving masks that are disposable in the office,” said Albright. “Some hallways and stairways are kinda one way, one way up and one way down. That’s just really to limit the amount of traffic going up and down those stairs.”

“If we do get to have all students in the building, instead of just being in this hybrid model, it’ll be a lot easier to move having students that are used to using those stairways.”

Students and staff were asked to take a survey over what learning style suits them best.

Here are the results:

83 people prefer 100% in-person learning.

64 people prefer Hybrid learning.

24 people prefer 100% online learning,

Please remember to wear your masks properly and to follow the safety procedures here at TJ, it helps keep students and staff safe!