A commentary is an opinion written by a student who shares their experiences as a result of their direct involvement. This commentary does not necessarily represent the views of The Mav, Mead High School, or the St. Vrain Valley School District. 

On March 12, 2020, Mead High School closed its doors for the school year, and on Oct. 5, after spending the beginning of the year online, students went back on a hybrid schedule for seven weeks. Many students had mixed feelings in the hybrid schedule, including myself. How was this gonna work? We’ve all done the commons dance, trying to break through the crowd to get to gym on time, or rushed to beat each other to the parking lot and escape the traffic. How would we stay six feet apart during all of this?

Many of the students at MHS said that they were anticipating a situation similar to what we all were seeing in grocery stores and restaurants: masks, social distancing, and lots of hand sanitizer. Those with connections to the staff knew we’d have two groups and go back on separate days, but the details were blurry.

Most of us were met with what they were expecting, but some were surprised by the split lunches and two-group system.

There were some things we would have liked to change. Many of us, from all grade levels, disliked the split-lunch system and the feelings of isolation and general strangeness that the separation during social time provided.

Allyson Baerg (‘21) said that she’d enjoy “a longer lunch period because 30 minutes is not a lot of time”, especially if you have Lunch 2 and almost five hours of learning with no snack breaks. Trying to eat a burrito in AP Lang without getting salsa on your mask is difficult to say the least, and there are only so many things you can consume with a straw.

Others disliked the system all together, saying that we should be online all the time if it isn’t safe to have in person class five days a week (foreshadowing).

Jorja Haskin (‘23) said that she believes having certain people stay in one part of the building the whole day would be a better system because there would be less exposure to others than there is now, even if everything is cleaned.

However, Hannah Redmon (‘21) summed up many students’ feelings when she said, “I don’t know what other way it could be…[or] how else a hybrid schedule [would] work other than this.”

The hybrid system was difficult for everyone, but now we’re back 100 percent online and only a few weeks away from the sweet relief that is winter break. We won’t know what’s happening next semester for a while, but I hope to see you all (safely) in the halls again soon.