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'We know that there will be COVID-19 around' | How St. Louis area school leaders prepared for the new year

Masks, temperature checks, and makeshift cubicles. School leaders are trying to limit the spread of coronavirus as students return to classrooms

ST. LOUIS — At Jennings High School, students returning to class for the first day of school are surrounded behind newly installed Plexiglas barriers, another way administrators are trying to stop the spread of COVID-19.

This district's already been put through the paces on the coronavirus response. They held in-person summer school, and all around the campuses are changes resulting from what they learned.

"We know that there will be COVID-19 around. Our goal is to make there no transmission," McCoy said. "Making these behaviors permanent is a crucial responsibility for educators."

Like Jennings, Wentzville schools returned to class with a blended model, splitting students between in-person and virtual learning to limit how many people were on campus.

At Jefferson County's Festus R-6 School District, parents and students were greeted outside the front door with colorful poster boards for new and returning students. They're returning with five in-person days each week, though there were concerns that might not be possible.

"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a doubt in my mind at some point," Superintendent Link Luttrell said.

Luttrell says communication is key since they are limiting access to the classrooms. Parents were not allowed to walk the younger students to their desks, so teachers uploaded photos to online programs to share with parents.

"I plan on probably -- if not today, sometime tomorrow -- sending out a note out to all the parents again kind of let him know how the first day or day-and-a-half went, what our enrollment numbers were like, and some of the things lessons we've learned," Luttrell said, adding "but [we're] just taking it one day, one week at a time."

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