Local teachers react to reopening plans

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- Schools across the commonwealth are preparing to reopen to in-person instruction. Many schools have set up safe spaces with plexiglass boards and even no contact greeting posters for younger students.

Teachers are absolutely thrilled to see students again.

“We are so excited to be able to see them. It seems like such a long time since March. We’re embracing the guidelines that have been set down for us,” said Plano Elementary math interventionist Gail Smith.

“I’m super excited to get back with my kids. I’ve missed them so much. I’m just really pumped to have kids in the classroom,” added Glasgow High School Spanish teacher Elizabeth Woosley.

While teachers agree that it would be ideal to see the kids again, some are still leery at the same time, wishing COVID-19 case numbers would go down before schools reopen and the teachers are surrounded by hundreds of students.

“I would prefer to wait until the numbers that we’re seeing in cases was on a downward trend or do an alternative like virtual school,” said Drakes Creek seventh grade teacher Jeanie Smith.

With all the different perspectives on reopening, teachers agree that school districts all over the region have done well to pull together, in a situation where no solution is a perfect one.

“We do have a great district. People are working together to try and solve these problems,” Jeanie Smith said.

While students were away from the classroom, teachers say this entire experience was a classroom in a way, as the students are living in history, and will have stories to tell their kids in the future.

“I hope they take away that this was a time where they learned to be flexible. Maybe they’ve learned some things away, and learned to adapt to a situation, and still make it a positive thing,” Gail Smith said.