At last, back to school at Othello High School

OTHELLO — In usual times, it’s a normal scene. In fact, in any other school year, kids would probably be tired of decorating the bulletin boards that dot the halls of Othello High School by now.

But in any other school year, kids wouldn’t be painting “Welcome Back” posters in January. For the first time since March 2020, students will be in OHS starting today, Monday.

State officials ordered schools statewide to close mid-March in an attempt to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. Like other local school districts, Othello made plans to reopen with part-time instruction at the start of the 2020-21 school year. But the town of Othello has waged a tough battle with the coronavirus, and the rate of infection meant the opening of school was pushed back, more than once.

Senior Vanessa Valentin said a lot of the kids didn’t expect what happened. Most of the kids expected school to reopen, sometime, at least by August, for the start of the 2020-21 school year. It didn’t.

“It (the closure) just lasted,” Valentin said.

Even kids who normally wouldn’t be excited for school to start are ready to come back, she said.

“We’ve been out of school for almost a year,” Valentin said.

“It’s been, like, nine months since we’ve been back to school. Crazy,” said freshman Kali Gomez.

Classes switched to online, and many of the activities of high school went online too, or were postponed or canceled. Seniors Grecia Mendoza and Tanisha Salisbury found the sudden inactivity a little depressing.

Mendoza tried to explain it.

“All the school activities were just ...”

“Gone,” Salisbury said.

It wasn’t the way Elidia Magana envisioned her senior year.

“A lot of time at home, just studying in my room,” she said.

Magana thought senior year, being the last in high school, would be different.

“But it felt like the second part of being a junior,” she said.

The traditional eighth-grade promotion ceremony was one of the casualties of the pandemic. Like some of the seniors, the incoming freshmen didn’t really feel like they’d made the transition from one year to the next.

Gomez said it’s time.

“Ready to come back to school? Yes. Mainly sports. I’m excited,” she said.

Freshman Mia Carlson agreed the transition from eighth grade has been scrambled by the long shutdown.

“I’m excited. Not really scared but definitely nervous,” she said.

The pandemic also scrambled the transition for Yoselin Farias, who volunteered to help paint posters.

“I’m a new student here,” Farias said.

She attended Connell High School, but on the day classes were starting in Connell, she moved to Othello. With OHS still closed, and all the restrictions in place, it was tough to meet other kids, she said.

But in-person instruction is finally here.

“I’m a little nervous. I am a little excited,” Farias said.

“I’m just excited we get to come back and see people. And learn in the classrooms,” Salisbury said.

Distance learning didn’t work for Salisbury.

“I don’t like online learning. At all,” she said.

“We had some good times on Zoom,” said Tari Perez, ASB advisor and teacher of business education, among other classes.

Teachers at OHS figured out how to make distance learning work, she said. Paul Furth, ELL teacher, said for his students distance learning worked in some ways, but not others.

Perez was supervising the students decorating the halls.

“It’s been fun to be around kids again,” she said. “I’m excited to see them again and have them back in my class.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.