The COVID-19 vaccinations are currently being distributed at a rapid pace all over the country. This is great news for everyone, as it signifies a step towards the end of the pandemic. GCDS, as per usual, has also been on top of this news. GCDS staff have gotten the opportunity to receive their own vaccines. They were first able to register through their positions at school some weeks before spring break. Now, most of the faculty and staff on campus have received both doses of their COVID vaccine. As of March 30th, almost 30% of the U.S. population has obtained at least one dose of the vaccine, with 16% fully vaccinated. With the flow of the vaccine distribution, many of the pre-existing COVID-19 policies have become more lenient. 

Now that students and teachers alike are being vaccinated, along with the new state regulations, things are changing at GCDS. The first major change that students and teachers are highly aware of, is the changing of in-person days. The schedule before this change allowed freshmen and sophomores to physically be in school 2-3 days a week, and juniors and seniors to be in-person 4 days a week. The new schedule has all students in school for 4 days a week, with Friday having all grades in-person together. The goal is eventually to have students come in all 5 days, but the administration will make that decision after a few more weeks of monitoring the current 4 days a week schedule. 

With more students in the building and the weather getting warmer, it is much easier to accommodate lunch, which has also received a change. At the circular tables, there are now 4 seats per table, opposed to 3, as there were before. In schools, students and teachers are now permitted to stay 3 feet apart, so adding an extra seat to the tables in the dining hall is not only safe (according to the CDC and the state), but also benefits GCDS, as we can fit more people into the dining hall at a time. It’s likely that GCDS will continue to undergo changes concerning COVID regulations, and things are looking up as more people are receiving their vaccinations. 

While many things about COVID regulations and school life remain unsure, everything is looking a little brighter this spring. Between more teachers and students getting vaccinated and the regulations becoming more lenient as the COVID case numbers reduce, GCDS is quick to adapt to changes that are being made. We can expect a number of new changes in the school building as well as in the country as a whole. 

At GCDS, it’s possible that school may be open completely by sometime next school year. If the vaccine distribution continues to play out the way it has been, there is a very good chance that students and faculty will be able to attend school in-person without any masks or COVID protocol. The return to normalcy affects many different parts of the school. The dining hall will be able to accommodate more people during breakfast and lunch hours, meaning that students will have plenty of time to eat and spend time with their friends or teachers during the lunch block. Sports will have the opportunity to compete more often, and anyone will be able to attend sports games. This also means that GCDS will be able to hold more school-wide events. While it may not be possible at the start of the school year, as the cases in the area fall, and vaccine distribution rates keep rising, there is a chance that things at GCDS will return to normal before the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

Of course, there is always the possibility that things may change in a negative way. It’s completely possible that COVID cases in the area will continue to rise, and vaccine distribution rates will slow down. As we have seen around the holidays, cases can rise very quickly in a very short amount of time. If people choose to start being less careful with COVID precautions now that the weather is getting warmer and summer is around the corner, we may see a surge in COVID cases. If this does happen, certain plans at GCDS will have to change. The next school year would have to follow the COVID precautions that are in place now, which affects a variety of things within the school community. Schoolwide events planned for the fall would have to be changed or canceled, fall sports would have to be just like this past fall season, and it’s even possible that students would have to go back to a hybrid schedule. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen, and GCDS will be able to return to normal as soon as possible, but everything is up in the air right now.

Image Courtesy: https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/us-health-experts-coronavirus-vaccines-way-precautions-still-paramount