Santa Maria freshmen attend first on-campus classes Tuesday
May 12—Before the start of her Spanish class on Tuesday, Santa Maria High School teacher Cristina Carrillo Rojas passed on a piece of encouragement to the freshmen in her classroom — "We're all on the same page."
Like her freshmen students navigating their first week of on-campus classes after months of distance learning, Rojas is experiencing her first in-person classes as a full-time teacher, so she understands the nerves some of them may be feeling.
During her Tuesday Spanish class, where she teaches vocabulary related to la cocina (the kitchen), she has three freshmen in the classroom and 27 students attending the class via Zoom.
"This is the first time I've had class like this. It's a little hard to focus," Rojas said. "I have a screen with a PowerPoint where I have to focus, and then the classroom chat, and I sometimes forget I have students in the room."
The freshman class is the newest group of students invited back to campus for hybrid learning following the return of the district's seniors in mid-April. Students are currently split into two groups, with each group learning in person twice a week on an alternating schedule.
Sophomores and juniors will be the next to return on May 18, with the goal of giving all students, especially freshmen, time to be on campus before the end of the school year in five weeks.
Working on an assignment in her class with Rojas, freshman Nirvana Humbert said she had been waiting to return to the classroom for a long time.
"I was anxious when I heard the seniors were going back. I knew freshman were probably coming back soon," she said. "It gave me some hope."
She was surprised by how few people were on campus on her first day but knows that many students can't return to classes right now due to various responsibilities.
"It's hard for everyone, but also easier for others," she said.
It's difficult to tell at this point how many freshmen will participate in hybrid learning, like Humbert, and how many will opt to learn from a distance, according to Principal Steve Campbell.
Based on the 30% return rate among district seniors and recent survey responses from other students, officials estimate that between 40% and 50% of freshmen, sophomores and juniors will be returning.
"A lot of our kids are working and helping their own financial situation or their families, and they're in their habits of Zooming at home, so being on the campus is a challenge for them," Cambell said. "The important thing is we're here and we're open for business."
When it comes to the freshmen, he said it's especially important to give them a chance to acclimate to the campus before they start their sophomore year and a new class of freshmen arrive.
"There's a certain nervousness about the first day of high school, whether it's in August or May," he said.
To ease some of that nervousness, officials organized a number of activities and surprises for students. Ninth graders were invited to tour the campus last week to get their bearings, and the first day of school on Tuesday featured hallways decorated with balloons.
According to school counselor Donna Trombetta, this is also the district's mental health awareness week, which staff celebrated with resources and activities.
One of the activities allowed students to pet and hold "therapy rabbits" brought in by the school counselors for comfort, leaving many students with wide smiles.
Since the school year began virtually in August, Trombetta has been in touch with freshmen and their parents via Zoom and Canvas but is relieved to see them back on campus.
"A lot of [parents] feel like their children need the interaction, for their mental health and academically," she said. "By now in the freshman year, we don't know our students as well as we'd like to."
