In the darkest of times, CHS is changing everyday habits using a hybrid schedule. For upperclassmen, this schedule is very different and unfamiliar compared to what was seen in the past. Junior and senior elective courses have less in-person opportunities for students to learn and create.

The schedule consists of slightly shorter class periods and more time to move in the halls, creating more space to promote social distancing. Throughout the day, students and staff are required to wear masks at all times.

When arriving at school, students must show their “GO green light” from the MCVSD COVID-19 symptom checker, a form that students fill out before arrival to prove they do not have any symptoms of COVID-19. Then, students get their temperatures taken and use hand sanitizer before entering the building.

For teachers it creates difficulties as they now have to teach students in-person and online simultaneously. This creates inefficiencies in teaching material, as all students need to learn the same material regardless of their location. Television teacher Jenifer Cornine is experiencing these difficulties with her class revolving around in-studio productions. 

“There is a whole lot of challenges teaching remotely television production,” Cornine said. “We were able to overcome that by taking the processes and procedures that we have in place and tweaking them a little bit and changing the technology up. We are still putting the heart of the show together, but it is just remotely.”

Another change to the schedule includes the lunch period being different. While lunch is still an hour, there are a lot more restrictions. The “new normal” does not allow for many typical CHS clubs and other lunch activities to continue. Students have assigned seats during two separate 20 minutes periods that allows for contact tracing and social distancing. Students sometimes feel rushed to eat because of the time shortage. For the freshman, there are difficulties creating friendships because they are unable to bond on the floor in the freshman hallway like in normal years.

Another difficulty faced with a hybrid schedule are for remote students in Cohort C. Teachers don’t have the chance to interact with these students to do in-person activities, some of which aren’t possible online. Sophomore Max Karp of ___(I think Brielle) plans to return to CHS for the second marking period, after beginning the year remotely.

“While teachers are available during class a lot of the time, it’s just not the same as interacting with them as at school. It’s just like there’s kind of a wall between you and the rest of the people at school physically,” Karp said.

While many difficulties are faced with the hybrid schedule and the CHS experience is very different, it is the safest way to bring students back to school. The darkness has finally disappeared as CHS has some light with half its students in the halls.