The Howard School shows students how they’ll return to school through video

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – A 5 minute video takes The Howard School students and parents on a walk-through of how students will return.

It follows a student from the start of his day to the end all while he’s adhering to expectations in this new normal.

“He comes to school he follows the arrows he’s always on the right-hand side of the hallways, the prepackaged lunches. So he just goes through what a typical day would look like,” The Howard School Theater Arts Teacher Ricardo Morris said.

The video was sent to students and parents.

School officials are using it to reach all students.

“We have some visuals learners and we think that would be very important for them just to see the action and I think it would lower their anxiety to see what’s expected when they get back to school and we’ve got a lot of students that are English learners and so just seeing the actions without even having dialog will definitely help them prepare,” Morris said.

According to the school’s executive principal Dr. LeAndrea Ware, around 30 percent of students at Howard are doing online learning.

Around 25 percent have not selected a learning option yet.

They expect 50 to 60 percent of students to be returning for in-person learning.

“So what does that equate to? About 700 students. You break it down per day we’re looking for somewhere around 350 students per day during this phase two that we’re starting with,” Dr. Ware said.

Those students can notice tape lining the floor and posters up around the school, reminding the safety expectations.

Desks are spaced in classrooms.

Seats are marked and spaced in the cafeteria, and lunches will be prepackaged.

“The first thing that we’ve been back since we’ve been training and preparing is just how much we miss our students. We know for a lot of students we know we are their safe place and so we want to make sure that we do everything possible to open the doors for them
to come back, for their parents to feel comfortable with them coming back,” Dr. Ware said.