Back in school

PORTALES - Monday night was like any other night in recent memory, but it sort of felt like Christmas Eve for the Portales school board.

The board met in regular session Monday, the day before in-school learning began for all grades throughout the Portales school system.

Since a state-mandated three-week spring break last March, students have largely been learning in remote settings. They'll still do so at least two days a week, with two separate in-person cohorts and a third choosing to remain in remote learning going forward.

"I think everybody's excited," Portales Superintendent Johnnie Cain told board members. "We've seen a lot of kids jumping ship from the remote learning classes so they could be part of the hybrid model. It's really exciting."

Cain and other administrators reminded board members of many of the COVID-safe protocols they'll have to follow to stay within Public Education Department and Centers for Disease Control directives. Many of those things were previously covered in a special meeting two Fridays before.

In a letter to parents, Cain said there's no way to guarantee nobody at the schools contracts COVID-19 while letting them know what might happen going forward. A positive case within a school would lead to notification of anybody determined to be a close contact and a requirement for them to quarantine. The district must also let everybody who was in the building know of the case.

"They don't have to do anything," Cain said. "We just have to let them know."

Portales High Principal Arturo Ontiveros said on Tuesday morning the school saw a little more than 200 students for its first day, and it was a mix of happiness to see each other again and reminders to practice COVID-safe procedures.

Students had temperatures taken upon arrival with infrared thermometers, while any visitors were directed to a sign including a QR code linking to a check-in survey for contact tracing purposes. Floors were divided by tape and marked with arrows to keep foot traffic one-way, and students and teachers alike stopped to make sure they were in the correct lane. Fist and elbow bumps were commonplace where handshakes and hugs would have been the norm last February.

Those were just a few of myriad details, including the requirement for students to return home if they are displaying any symptoms.

"We are 100% ready for everything we've thought of," Portales Junior High Principal Steve Harris said. "It's all the stuff we haven't thought of that's going to bite us in the ankle."

One of those unrealized things, Ontiveros said, was a student-inspired freshman orientation Monday that drew about 100 kids.

"They told us, 'We're freshmen and we're not familiar with the high school,'" Ontiveros said at the meeting. "We threw something together and we had a really good turnout."

The district is required to test 25% of its staff weekly, but Cain noted keeping up with testing supplies has been a difficulty for the state. He's hopeful Roosevelt County will soon be in yellow status - 5% test positivity or lower over a two-week period - so the testing requirement will drop to 12.5%.