Crookston High School will have all students back for in-person learning when the doors open on Tuesday morning for the first time in 11 months. The 10th through 12th graders will be returning to every day in-person after the 7th through 9th graders returned on February 1.
High School Principal Eric Bubna said it’s fun to see all the students back together. “It’s been fun having all of our 7th-9th graders back,” said Bubna. “A few are opting for distance learning, obviously, but that went smoother than I thought. It felt like the first day of school all over again, and it will probably feel like that again on Tuesday getting the 10th-12th graders back. It’s been fun seeing them all back. It’s also a challenge to continually remind them that while things are starting to look normal, we still have to maintain our distance as much as possible and follow many protocols. We are still in the middle of a pandemic, and sometimes, when they see everyone, it’s back to hugging everybody and congregating in the commons. We’re doing our best, but it’s for sure been fun to have that full energy back in the building.”
The students can return because COVID-19 numbers in the area have dipped drastically since earlier this winter when the school board elected to go full distance learning for several weeks. “Numbers continue to be low,” said Bubna. “We’ve had a few quarantines here or there, but quarantines aren’t positive cases. Although, it is always kind of a bummer to see kids have to quarantine for a few days and not be in school. Overall, the numbers continue to seem to be in a good place, and glad to Tuesday have everybody back face-to-face and hoping to be able to maintain that the rest of the year.”
Bubna added it’s hard to believe the school hasn’t had all the students in the building for a single day in almost a year. “Someone said to me the other day it’s crazy to think that when the kids come back on Tuesday, they gave me the number 300 and some odd days since we’ve had all the kids in the building,” said Bubna. “It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for an entire year. That will be a fun day on Tuesday. We’ll have two days to see how it goes and then, a bit of a break to make any adjustments but definitely looking forward to it.”
The school week will be abbreviated by President’s Day on Monday and parent-teacher conferences at the end of the week. Bubna also said that the staff making sure to cover the other areas, such as ACT testing previously handled by School Counselor Leah Zimmerman, who resigned last month. “We have conference Wednesday-Thursday,” said Bubna. “Parents should’ve gotten an email invitation. You’ll be able to – zoom in – by Google Meets, in this case with the teachers. Parents can sign up. We have ACT coming up in March. As most people know, Leah Zimmerman took a different job, and we’re down to no counselors right now. We have that position posted and hoping to find a replacement. Obviously, she left some big shoes to fill. Mr. (Matt) Torgerson is taking over the ACT, and then, we’re trying to help our seniors get ready with scholarships and all that different stuff.”
Bubna said the end of the year would come quickly with students back in school, so staff is making plans to end the year on a positive note. “The end of the year is coming a lot quicker than you think,” said Bubna. “So, we’re starting to have conversations around what we can do for like prom. We’re pretty confident we will not be able to do a normal prom, dance, that kind of stuff. But we’re trying to if maybe we can pull off a dinner, grand march, that kind of thing. Everything is always a bit of a moving target, but especially for our seniors this year, we want to give them a little something after losing out on stuff their junior year. Hopefully, we can give them something fun to look forward to at the end of the year.”
