HARLINGEN — Mackenzie Saldana is glad to be back in class.
“I’m seeing all my friends and teachers,” said the seventh-grader at Memorial Middle School.
It’s a brand new school year for more than 18,000 students who survived a frightening and challenging year.
Once again, students crowded cafeteria tables with their friends, debated math problems in class, and walked briskly along hallways with eyes darting with a bold and fresh excitement for new beginnings.
William Snavely, principal, was excited about the new year.
“It’s fabulous, so nice to have the kids back,” he said. “I think they are pretty excited and glad to see their friends. It’s nice for us as educators because this is why we do this.”
When the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, unprecedented challenges suddenly confronted every aspect of life both home and around the world.
The Harlingen district immediately closed campuses and mobilized to develop “School@Home” in which students logged in to class from home.
While virtual learning served a purpose under unusual circumstances, the isolation and lack of face to face contact took its toll on students, teachers and administrators alike. Student performance declined in schools across the country, and Harlingen was no different.
And officials are only beginning to gauge the emotional trauma experienced by students.
Most of the kids seemed almost giddy about a return to normalcy, but some expressed a cute and almost refreshing sarcasm about the new school year.
“Hi, boy, are you glad to be back with your friends?” Snavely said to a masked sixth grader.
“No,” the boy said.
Again, return to normalcy.
“Go on now,” said a perturbed Snavely as he ventured further down the hall full of sixth grade classes.
Stopping in the doorway of a math class full of energetic youngsters, he asked the same question and received a unanimous “yes.”
Same in Cathy Sanchez’s reading class.
“What I like about middle school is the culture and the spirit of the school,” Snavely said. “You can’t have that without the kids.”
The kids seemed to feel the same way, especially when it comes to extracurricular activities.
Lilly Bishop, 12, is looking forward to playing volleyball, basketball and soccer this year.
“It’s nice to be face to face again,” said the Memorial seventh grader.
She, like Mackenzie, acknowledged it would require an adjustment. Both girls spent the first part of last school year learning online. They then did a hybrid of virtual and face to face before finishing the school year back in class.
However, the classes and hallways had been pretty bare with only a small portion of students, not like now, with the full measure of the student population back.
“I’m not used to seeing all the kids faces,” Mackenzie said, “but I’m enjoying seeing the kids back.”
Most of the kids in the cafeteria and classrooms wore masks even though they weren’t required to. It was the same throughout the school district.
Some were annoyed with the few who weren’t wearing masks.
“It’s important to protect all of us and stay in school,” said Paul Sandoval, 16, a junior at Harlingen High School.
David Mendoza, 14, had just enjoyed his first day at the Dr. Abraham P. Cano Freshman Academy. He spent all of last year doing remote learning from home.
“I like being back in school because I can make more connections with people,” he said. “I can actually learn more stuff when I’m at school and not online… I’d rather be in school.”
