After the longest Spring Break in history (exactly one year!), TUSD is preparing to have students return to campus.  TUSD Governing Board made the decision on Tuesday, February 9 to re-open schools for either in-person all day learning (K-5) or hybrid learning (6-12) following Spring Break 2021.  This is at least a step forward and closer to us having a normal school year. The news of Tucson Unified School District opening up again was mixed with positive and a lot of negative emotions. Many people want the school district to open up so their kids can get the in-school experience again and a lot of kids need the help from a teacher.  A TUSD parent responded and said, “I would urge you to consider the full-day return to school for Pre-K through 5th grade. Or, even just to the Pre-K through 3rd grade as soon as humanly possible.”

Some of the Tucson community wishes that all of the school would open for all grades.  Superintendent Trujillo said, “The reason is safety. If you have thousands of students coming back onto campuses, you have thousands of students switching classes every 40 to 55 minutes. It’s going to be crowded.”

So Trujillo came up with a plan to bring back teachers on March 22 to prepare, bring students back on March 24, offer fully remote or fully in person for the Pre-K elementary and K-8, offer half days in person/half days online or fully remote for middle and high schoolers. Not all of Tucson has been vaccinated so we have to be very careful being one of the biggest school districts in Tucson. With these plans come with many precautions like there will be no collecting work while we are in school, everything will be turned in electronically, there will be no group work, students will be as socially distanced as possible, and of course face masks. They want to make sure that everyone will take all of these precautions seriously so we can have these last few months in school.