Two Rock School District outside Petaluma welcomes back students

For 25 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, March 15 was their first day of school – ever.

The little guys and girls had been learning since September virtually, using ZOOM with the help of parents and others, but last week they actually went to school. The small, rural school opened its doors to its youngest learners, those in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade. Their schoolmates in grades 2-6 will join them April 12.

The big day was a long-time coming.

“We started meetings about reopening in October,” said Two Rock Principal Stephen Owens.

The delays and months of frustration as the pandemic surged and ZOOM continued. Finally, on Feb. 19, the one-school, 132-student district submitted a plan to the Sonoma County Health Department, and on March 2 that plan was approved.

Two weeks later, the plan came alive when smiling and slightly bewildered learners began lining up on carefully marked spots in front of the school. It was definitely different from other years. Parents were not allowed into the classrooms. Goodbyes and hugs had to be delivered in vehicles before students stepped out to be greeted by their enthusiastic and understanding teachers, Hannah Coffey for the kindergartners and Amy Jones for the first graders.

“This is great to have the students back. It feels like school again,” said Coffey, in her second year at Two Rock.

Now in her 20th year of teaching, Jones already knew most of her first graders from their kindergarten days.

“We are such a small school, you get to know all the students,” she explained.

For her, things have definitely been different.

“It has been a very strange year,” she said. “I have gotten to know the students through a computer, and now the fun begins.”

The new students were greeted not only by their teachers, principal and the school mascot - the Bobcat - but by the school staff and several other teachers eager to get on the fun of the first day of school.

A second group of kindergartners and first graders arrived at noon. The young students will be in class for 2 hours, 45 minutes four days a week with an additional 80 minutes of what is called “independent practice” each day.

The little guys and girls will be the first to use the school’s new protocols which call for individual water bottles, hand washing stations in all classrooms, arrows in the hallways to point students in safe directions, a wellness tent in case someone shows symptoms, and, of course, the now commonplace face masks. Owens said that all teachers and staff member had been vaccinated.

The principal said the school’s parents, many of them Coast Guard families from the nearby Coast Guard facility, were overwhelmingly on board with the plan.

“We had a town hall meeting (via Zoom) to discuss the plan and the parents were very supportive,” Owens said. “We have been working with the Coast Guard to set up a place where the students can study when they are not in school.”

Owens looked on as excited youngsters began piling out of cars, quickly showing that they already know how to follow directions.

“It is a great day,” Owens said. “I can’t speak highly enough about our teachers and staff,” the principal said. “They did the heavy lifting.”