New Changes in HKMS

By Arjun S. Phatak

As you walk throughout the hallways, you will notice three major changes in HKMS. These changes bring exciting adventures so continue to read this article written by me, Arjun Phatak.

So, “ what are these changes?” you may ask. The first one is probably the most important change. Governor Lamont and the ER9 Board of Education have officially gotten rid of the mask mandates in school. Now students throughout the whole ER9 district don’t need to wear masks inside school. Ever have the problem of not being able to breathe in school? Well no more trouble. Please keep in mind that each student has their own freedom to decide if they want to wear their masks or not.

The second change is kind of a “ Back to normal” change. Instead of having the grade split for lunch, all students are back in the cafeteria to eat. Now students can talk with their friends because many were not near their friends.

The third and final change is a slight change. The end of the day dismissal is now gone from our schedule. Morning homeroom will be 5 minutes longer which will push all classes forward. Therefore, there will be no more “ loitering in the hallway” Jennifer Burke, 6th grade ILA teacher, puts it when explaining these changes to her homeroom class. Instead of Mrs. Neff announcing walkers, bikers, ECC, carline, and buses, a bell will ring at 2:50pm signifying that the day is over. All students must leave the classroom to go to their dismissal plan.

As you can see, there are some big changes at HKMS. They are exciting and are a new opening for something amazing. I also interviewed HKMS Assistant Principal Annie Mohr. Here is the interview.

Q: How does dismissal work now?

A: Prior to the pandemic, the bell rang and we all went to our dismissal plan. We never had an end of the day homeroom before. By getting rid of this, we were able to have more time in the morning homeroom so we did not have to rush through video announcements.

Q: Do you like these new changes?

A: I think it's best for middle schoolers to have as much independence as they can and to be trusted just to do what they need to do. Like that the end of the day we don't have to micromanage where everyone's going and call it out in more of an elementary model.

Q: Does the “no dismissal calling” have anything to do with the “no masks in school” policy?

A: So the reason that we used to dismiss slowly and with an end-of-day homeroom is to make sure that people aren't too crowded in the hallway and we're keeping social distancing. Now we don't need to worry as much about slowing everything down and spacing everybody out so we're able to put those minutes back in the morning.

Q: Do you think we will have to go back to “no masks” or will this change be permanent?

A: I personally am very hopeful that we won't need to go back. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe in future years there might be certain times of the year that we decide masks would be really helpful and it might be, you know a horrible strain of the flu that year, right but we've kind of learned that we can handle wearing masks and it helps us be less sick so I think keeping that as a tool is going to be a good idea. But I think we've learned a lot about different safety protocols and there's some that we've learned don't really need any more and there's some that will kind of always keep in the back of our minds.

Q: Do you think that other illnesses, like the cold or the flu, will come back now that masks are gone?

A: I'm hopeful that we're going to have a great spring. I wouldn't be surprised if we all started getting some cold reaction to not being used to germs around us. I know my two boys were home last week -nothing out of the ordinary but you know we've been used to having masks blocking us from the germs.

Q: Are you going to keep the 2 lines in the cafeteria?

A: We're going to keep the two lines and it's what we used to do pre-pandemic.

Q: Are you ever going to put the dividers back up in the cafeteria?

A: I think we learned a lot over the course of the two and a half years and after the first year a lot of the doctors and medical professionals were saying that the dividers in the cafeteria weren't as effective as originally believed.

Q: How did these changes happen?

A: So the way the changes came about for the safety protocols is that it really a trickle-down. So the governor's office and State Department of Health released updated information about safety protocols we need to know. Our superintendent and assistant superintendent review it and they talk about it with the Board of Ed and they made changes to what we're going to do here in our school. And that gets delivered and we make sure that all the students and the staff know the updates and we make them happen here.

Q: How does the future look in terms of no masks in school?

A: I'm hopeful for the future. This spring I'm hoping there'll be more and more group work in the classroom, teachers can pair students together, and I am hopeful that maybe we can do something like field trips or more like events where the whole grade or the whole school could get together.

As you can see, these changes are going to be an opening for new changes and new ways of learning. Mrs. Ann Mohr definitely agrees. Thank you so much for reading this article and enjoy the new changes!

Also, check out the Easton Courier School page to see more about Helen Keller!