By Jamie Worsley| August 26, 2020 at 4:21 PM EDT – Updated August 26 at 10:32 PM
ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) – The Sherwood Eagles have been back for in-person learning since August 7.
According to the head of school, no COVID-19 cases have been reported so far.
Dr. Brian Dougherty says the start of the fall semester was a non-traditional success.
“Being the first school in the community to open up, we were excited and also anxious about how this is going to go because everyone is looking at us, of course. And I couldn’t be more proud of our students, staff, and parents. They’ve really embraced our reopening plan and many of the measures we have put in place. They’ve said this is what it’s going to take to be in in-person instruction,” said Dr. Dougherty.
As part of the school’s reopening plan, students are required to have their temperatures checked twice daily, using a thermal thermometer.
“The temperature checks are pretty seamless. It’s a part of our procedure. So when they come in the building in the morning, they are lined up six feet apart and they go in front of the thermal scanner and it automatically checks their temperatures. One by one, they go to our rooms. Before we go to lunch, they line up 6 feet apart, and all I do is just go down the line and check their temperatures. It doesn’t take more than about two minutes,” said Deborah Holman, a second-grade teacher at the school.
When kids do go to lunch, they sit on blue dots that are six feet apart from one another.
On each side of the lunchroom, kids face the same direction to eat.
In addition to these protocols, the school also hired a nurse as an extra COVID-19 safety measure.
“What a blessing to be able to hire a school nurse. It’s always been something we have thought about, but in this season of making sure to have a professional health care person on point for any cases or any other illnesses in our school, managing social distancing and contact tracing in our school, we needed that extra person,” said Dr. Dougherty.
Between the thermal temperature scanners, new air purification systems, and COVID-19 protocols that the school has put into place, Holman says she’s confident their staff will be able to handle whatever this fall brings.
“I know that our leadership has put many safety practices in place so that we can have a very smooth school year, a very effective school year, but also a very safe school year,” said Holman.
A copy of Sherwood’s complete reopening plan can be found on the SCA website.