In-person and on-time, fall semester set to begin for Petaluma schools

Fall semester set to begin for Petaluma schools

The happy shouts rang out from behind Mary Collins at Cherry Valley School, where kids applied themselves fully to recess on the school’s sprawling playground filled with basketball courts, grassy fields and assorted climbing apparatus.

Such a joyful cacophony in late July has been missing in this north Petaluma neighborhood since 2019, as silence reigned amid the months of isolation and in-home learning during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

School is back for Petaluma’s year-round campuses – Cherry Valley and Penngrove Elementary School, which started July 22 and represent the community’s first look at the return of an on-time, in-person school year.

And how’s it going so far?

“It couldn’t be better,” said Principal Amy Schlueter, reflecting July 30 on the first week at Mary Collins before she would transition to a new role with Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School. “It’s kind of been like stepping back in time two years ago.”

In just five days, on Tuesday, thousands of Petaluma students – from kindergarten to high school – will return to classrooms for the start of fall classes, marking the first such on-time return since August 2019.

There will be masks, hand sanitizer and health screenings. District and school officials say the first week of school will feature a slow, deliberate pace to get students in the habit of in-person school. That will transition into an earnest push to ensure students are ready to learn and are in a position to make up for lost time.

“This has been a very, very challenging past 17 months, for all of us, particularly the social-emotional challenges we’ve seen with students, and learning loss,” said new Petaluma City Schools Superintendent Matthew Harris.

School leaders have worked overtime through the summer to prepare for the return of full-time, in-person learning, grappling with seemingly ever-changing guidance from local, state and federal health officials. Most recently, Petaluma City Schools and other districts pivoted with state law to ensure an online-only option for families who prefer that route.

Harris said he’s confident the vast majority of students will be back in physical classrooms when school starts Tuesday, and if the elementary school students at Mary Collins are any indication, there will be plenty of excitement with that return.

“The younger ones are kind of like squirrels on Red Bull; they’re excited, they’re just running, screaming all over the place,” said Pat Langst, a parent volunteer at the school for the past nine years. “That’s a bit overwhelming, but I think it’s really good for them – some sense of normalcy,” he said.

At the playground, mask usage was mixed. Masks aren’t required for students or adults beyond the classroom walls, and schools are encouraged to host lunches outside. Mary Collins, a K-8 campus, has split the lunch schedule in half, and even then requires half of students at lunch time to eat outdoors with the other half inside and socially distanced.

Sonjhia Lowery, superintendent at Old Adobe Union School District in east Petaluma, said it’s important that schools do what they can to promote a sense of security for all who are returning to the school environment.

“We want kids to feel safe, staff to feel safe and we want families to feel safe coming back to school,” Lowery said.

At Petaluma City Schools, that involves a hand sanitizing station or sink in every classroom, strict mask guidelines indoors and state-of-the-art air purifiers or scrubbers in every building.

Langst, who has had two children go through the school, said he’s happy to see school back in session, and he’s confident in the protocols in place to keep kids safe.

“It’s very strange…It’s actually quite a relief,” he said, adding that taking on teaching at home was difficult. “Everyone’s happy that school’s back in.”

Back at Mary Collins, Schlueter said the first couple of days of the school year were spent creating bonds again between students and staff, and teaching kids how to go to school again – raising their hands when they have a question, standing in line, participating in group conversations, taking turns.

“We spent a lot of time going over those kinds of things,” Schlueter said. “I think sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.”

Harris said there is more planned district-wide, with the hiring of a student and family engagement coordinator and bolstering extracurricular offerings such as coding and robotics teams, a film festival, running and gaming events and more.

“All of these sort of ideas are ways to get students better connected and engaged in what they’re doing,” Harris said. “We’ve added staff, including mental health staff…We’re gearing up just to make as many connections as we can with students.”

Petaluma Federation of Teachers President Sandra Larsen said teachers are ready for the challenge. Larsen, who chose not to retire last year because she wanted one more regular year in the classroom, said, “It’s all bright.”

“We’re all excited – students, staff, admin – we all want to get back,” she said. “And we have the experience from the past year to really make it a good year.”

Tyler Silvy is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at tyler.silvy@arguscourier.com, 707-776-8458, or @tylersilvy on Twitter.