It has been a drastic change since when COVID first affected school. When COVID first started incredibly early parts of the year back in February 2020. It was around the second half of the school year, sophomore year for me.  At first Clover Park SD decided to take a few weeks off then return to classes. But the cases started rising and COVID started becoming increasingly of a danger, more than just a normal flue, Clover Park SD then decided to cancel out the rest of the school year for the safety of the students and staff. Clover Park SD decided to take the online approach for the last 3-4 months of school. The school went with the plan that students’ final grade for the rest of the year would be based on your 3rd quarter grade, which means that the students’ grade could not go lower and fail them but could only improve their grade till the final days of the school year. 

As COVID cases were still high in Washington state, Clover Park kept with the online courses for students and staff. Teachers instructed students from home as well as students learn from home on computers that the school provided to the students, as students were used and comfortable to learning different subjects in school in with this type of manner through computers, most students struggled to keep up with class work, as a result most students grades started off low and it was a bit difficult to big their grades back up through the first quarter and time into the second quarter. As the second semester was about to start off, the school decided to send kids back to school in person, but with a special method to it, separate groups of students would go to school on different days, 2 times a week, leaving one day of the week where every student would stay home and teachers would go to school. Clover Park went on with this method for the rest of the year till school finished off.  

When the new school year arrived, Clover Park decided that it would send all students to school in person, but with the choice that students could stay full time online if they didn’t want to go to school in person. Masks were mandatory, with classes being renovated to match the state mandate of keeping social distance of 6ft. Seats in the lunchroom and the bleachers in the gymnasium have been marked with X’s around to notify students to not sit in that specific seat during lunch, P.E, and during the mornings before school starts. 

Change at the start was a bit wobbly to get used to, and getting comfortable with. As time goes on this change has become more of a normal routine for students and teachers, and adults outside of school. Sadly, it has become a normal part of all our lives, when simply, 1-2 years ago, we were spending time together in big groups with friends at school, sports, or conventions, we weren’t wearing masks inside buildings. We didn’t need masks for sports, we didn’t need to get COVID checks in school. We don’t know if we’ll reach the time where we don’t need these masks in public, where we need to get different amounts of vaccine shots for our safety against this virus, to a time where we don’t have to worry about getting this virus and infecting our family.