HANCOCK COUNTY — Hundreds of local high school students will feel like they’re at a high school reunion on Monday, when classes at Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central high schools return to full capacity for the first time in months.
For most of the school year, the county’s two largest high schools have been operating on a hybrid format, with students learning both at home and part time in the school buildings. G-C will still have a built-in e-learning day on Wednesdays, but the school will be fully open otherwise. MV students will be back in class full time.
New Palestine and Eastern Hancock high schools already returned to full-time in-school studies.
Alli Bowman, a senior at Greenfield-Central High School, can’t wait to see her friends in the halls on Monday morning.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Alli, 17, who will attend the University of Indianapolis this fall.
She’s hoping all goes smoothly so she can enjoy some sense of normalcy in the last weeks of her senior year, in a year that’s been anything but normal.
Fun traditions like graduation, prom and Senior Nights have all been upended or adjusted in one way or another at all four Hancock County high schools, for the classes of 2020 and 2021.
With local schools hoping to hold traditional commencement ceremonies and making plans for altered prom nights, both administrators and students are hoping the return to school next week marks a move in the right direction.
“We are very excited to have all students onsite next week,” said Jason Cary, principal at Greenfield-Central High School.
Cary said the decision to return to full capacity was based on feedback gathered from students, staff and parents, with a vast majority of those stakeholders wanting students to return to the building.
“We created a schedule that we feel safely allows us to return to a more normal school environment. We hope this allows our students to finish the year strong, while also keeping an eye on the safety of our students and staff members,” he said.
Casey Dodd, principal at Mt. Vernon High School, is also looking forward to welcoming the full student body back to class on Monday, one week after students returned at half-capacity from spring break.
Dodd said the transition was based on guidance provided by the Hancock County Health Department, which has been closely tracking local COVID-19 trends and monitoring state and federal guidelines.
“Based on the information we have received from them, we feel very, very comfortable having everyone back in the building,” he said.
Dodd said school officials will continue to implement social distancing and mask wearing to keep students and staff safe.
The principal voiced praise at how resilient students and teachers have been in the face of unprecedented challenges.
“The general consensus is that people are excited about returning, and we’re excited to welcome them back,” he said.
Alli, a cheerleader and the National Honor Society president at Greenfield-Central High School, admits she’s somewhat concerned about more events being canceled this spring due to an increased risk of COVID contact tracing, but she thinks returning to in-person learning is worth the risks.
“While I love the thought of being back in person with all my friends, I’m just a little concerned about getting contact traced, given all the other senior (traditions) that have already been canceled this year,” she said.
“Now I’m going back with more kids, and I know the risk of getting contact traced goes up with that,” said Alli, who is hopeful that the majority of teachers and students opt to get the COVID-19 vaccine. She looks forward to getting her own shot on Thursday.
One of her classmates, Addison Hill, is also looking forward to returning to full capacity on Monday.
The active athlete, a four-year member of Greenfield-Central’s girls basketball and track teams, also yearns for a return to normalcy to round out her senior year.
“This year has definitely been difficult because we are missing out on so many things, and it’s been hard to see my friends on a regular basis,” said Addison, 18, who plans to attend Purdue University in the fall.
Addison considers herself lucky that most of her friends have been in her half of the student body attending class together, but that she’s missed having full sports seasons over the past year.
“Our track season is just getting started, but the basketball team wasn’t allowed to have spectators there for most of the season. Only my parents could come, not my siblings or grandparents,” she said.
Addison was contact-traced for COVID twice during her senior basketball season and had to quarantine, forcing her to miss the rescheduled Senior Night and the last four or five games of the season.
Alli was disappointed to only have one in-person cheer competition this year, and no state competition. She’s also been less active in service organizations, like the Y Give youth board at the Hancock County Community Foundation.
“I’ve been on the board since my freshman year, but this year they decided not to do anything due to COVID, since we can’t go into the community to do service projects because it puts people at risk. So that was disappointing,” she said.
Still, both she and Addison have tried to remain optimistic. “I’ve really been trying to focus on the positives of what we are able to do to just try and enjoy the opportunities we do have,” Addison said.
Alli said one silver lining to attending class at half-capacity has been the opportunity to get to know other students better in a smaller setting.
When COVID first struck locally in March 2020 and classes were abruptly switched to virtual learning, most students, staff and parents thought the change would be short-term.
“I remember thinking it was going to be normal by summertime, and everything would be good to go,” Addison recalled. “I really didn’t think we’d be in it for longer than a month.”
It will be strange to see the school halls and cafeteria back to capacity, Alli said, but she’s thankful to be returning to school from a social perspective.
“I think we’re still taking the necessary precautions, like having desks spaced out and everyone wearing masks, so I feel pretty good about that,” she said.
She praised school administrators’ efforts to make the school year as positive as possible for seniors, despite the circumstances.
“I feel like our administration has done an amazing job of giving us kids every opportunity they can despite COVID,” Alli said.
“As for the seniors who are missing out on stuff, they’ve been really understanding and sympathetic. Yes, they’ve had to cancel things, but they’ve tried to come up with other options, and I’m just really appreciative of that,” she said.
Both she and Addison plan to attend Greenfield-Central’s prom event, which has been changed from the traditional formal dance to a dinner and dessert event, with a comedian rather than live music and dancing as entertainment.
Addison is disappointed that she’ll never get to attend an actual prom, but remains hopeful that the coming school year will reflect a sense of normalcy for both high school and college students everywhere.
“It’s kind of crazy how this year has gone,” she said.
