It all starts early in the morning. At 6:45am, cars start pouring into the parking lots of Panther Creek, carrying a third of its Plan B hybrid in-person students. By this time, health screenings have begun. Before being given a pink slip that admits them to campus, students have to pass both a temperature check and a rapid-fire spiel of health-related questions. They sit in the commons if they arrive before 6:55. From there, it’s straight to their first period classroom.

This is how the students in one of three cohorts back in the school building on any given week start their days: following tight procedures to allow for something reminiscent of normalcy in the sense that some classmates are once again in the same classroom. They continue their days in the same fashion, following tape arrows down relatively empty one-way hallways and eating lunch in the commons, one person per table, everyone facing the same direction, unspeaking and monitored by a few teachers. There’s none of the lively din you’d expect to hear in a high school outside of classes. Even still, it seems like progress.

Other restrictions pepper the school day, but they’re easier to miss if you don’t use the restrooms or water fountains at school. The former have signs posted outside of them limiting their use to two people at a time and reminding everyone to maintain six feet of distance and wash their hands. The latter can’t be sipped from directly, but each water fountain has a stack of disposable cups that can be filled.

The end of the day is, in a way, the most familiar to students; it’s the same release it always has been, and students leave to get in cars or on buses. But something’s still a little off. Some teachers remark almost wistfully about the way student drivers used to rush in a massive crowd toward the parking lot at dismissal. You wouldn’t see that happen today. Meanwhile, as PCNN reporter Pola Nowak notes about the carpool loop, “there’s a few parents who picked up their children, but no line. There always used to be a long line. Nothing. It feels like one of those zombie movies, you know, where everything is deserted?” 

Clearly, things aren’t how they used to be; but it’s safe to say they’re getting closer, slowly but surely.

Polls Conducted by Josh Willis

Infographic created by Josh Willis