By Isabella Giallanza, Photo Editor

Trinity Hall reopened its doors on Sept. 9 for the eighth time since its establishment in 2012. Despite significant physical restrictions, faculty, parents, and students alike were thrilled to return to in-person learning. 

With the abrupt ending of on-campus classes and activities for the 2019-2020 school year, most students were yearning to return to school and see their classmates and teachers. “The remote period was really difficult because I couldn’t be with my classmates,” senior Valentina Paz said. “We all motivate each other to do our best in our academics and athletics, and I missed that encouragement.” 

Although eager to return to school, the school administration stayed attentive to coronavirus updates over the summer and chose to create a task force composed of board members, school leaders, parents, teachers, staff and community experts who contributed their ideas for reopening

The task force took diligent measures to protect the Trinity Hall community, starting with the implementation of the three W’s: wear your mask, wash your hands, and wait as you maintain social distance. All students and faculty are required to wear a mask on campus unless eating or drinking, when they are encouraged to remain outside and socially distanced. In addition, all members of the community had to sign the Community Partnership contract at the beginning of the year committing to following all guidelines.

When possible, social distancing is maintained throughout the school day. In order to keep social distancing, desks have been rearranged from U-shapes into rows, with students spaced apart from one another. Another new implementation for the 2020-2021 school year is one-way traffic throughout the school building, as well as mandatory daily coronavirus screenings before entering the school building. 

In order to ensure that students and faculty would have a smooth transition should they have to switch back to remote learning, the task force created a “community day” every Wednesday. Each week, a different group of students are on campus for in-person activities while other students participate remotely in class, clubs, and council meetings. 

“I really like meeting clubs on Zoom because we can all see each other without a mask on,” freshman Katie Crowe said. 

Although it took some time for students to get acclimated to the new changes in the schedule and environment, most students are appreciative of the school’s strenuous efforts to remain in-person. “I’m glad we were able to come back to school this year. A lot of my friends from other schools are on hybrid schedules or just completely remote, and it definitely is a struggle for them,” junior Bridget Incantalupo said. 

Recently, three positive Covid-19 cases were reported to the school. Once reported, school nurse Susan Almeida and other faculty members quickly began contract tracing, quarantining students in close contact with the infected students. With quick and diligent tracing methods, approximately 40 students were quarantined in early October and all of them tested negative before returning to school.As United States coronavirus cases continue to climb, local cases are beginning to rise as well. In order to continue to protect our community, the Trinity Hall Tribune staff reminds all members of the community to follow the guidelines set forth by the school as well as local, state and national recommendations in order to continue in-person school and protect our community and families.