Welcome back Cougars! The time has finally come to go back to school in person. So what’s it like?

A lot has changed around the school in comparison to last school year.
The first big difference is wearing masks. Teachers, staff, and students are required to always wear a face covering while on campus. Whether you’re in the classroom, hallways, or outside, you are required to wear a mask. Posters are up all around the school encouraging people to wear their mask.

Another difference is where you can go while on campus. Hallways and stairs are now organized into one-way traffic. Signs are posted in the hallways and on the stairs telling you which way you can go. Up only, down only, one way, etc. Along with one-way restrictions is what doors you can enter and exit from. Doors to each building have signs that tell you if you can enter or exit from that way. One set of doors on each side of the 100, 200, and 300 buildings will either have an enter or exit sign to direct student traffic. There are restrictions as to what gates are open as well. When entering school 2 main gates are open. The bus gate off of Camino Seco, and the Fine Arts building gate. Students who take the bus to school enter through the Camino Seco gate, and students who get dropped off by parents or drive to school on their own enter through the Fine Arts gate. In normal times, students would have the option of entering through the admin building gate, or the 400 building gate, but those gates are not open for student use.

What’s new in the classroom? With class sizes being smaller and social distancing being put into place, desks and tables look a little different. Now when you walk into classrooms you will typically see desks with a big “X” on them. Or you will see a science class table with only 1 chair instead of 2-4. This is done by teachers in efforts to make students as socially distanced as possible. In most classes you will also now see teacher’s desks facing the same way as students instead of face to face.

Part of the procedure to come back to school was a schedule change. This affected every student at Sahuaro. Sophomore Mikyla Cather decided to stay online for the remainder of the school year and shared her opinion of the new schedule.

Q: How do you like the new schedule for staying online?
A: “I like it a lot because I get to sleep in and I feel like it’s already less stressful.”

Q: Was it a big change to get used to?
A: “No, not really. The only big difference for me is the different times school starts and gets out.”

Q: Why did you decide to stay online?
A: “I decided to stay online because as much as I would like to go back, I would much rather it be normal than hybrid…sure we get to go back, but it doesn’t seem that much different from online other than you’re in person doing the same computer stuff and I would rather stay online in the comfort of my own home.”

Amanda Mourelatos is a senior that decided to switch to in person learning for the remainder of this semester.

Q: Why did you decide to go back to in person learning?
A: “I hated how my room was no longer a place of relaxation and was a place of stress and work.”

Q: How do you like the new schedule?
A: “I absolutely love the new schedule. It’s super convenient and I feel more productive.”

Q: Was going back in person a big change compared to online for you?
A: “It wasn’t too big of a change, I just have to get used to waking up earlier again.”

Back to school in March? Sahuaro made it happen!