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Despite school bus transportation issues, students, teachers, and parents are happy to go back to in-person learning, Stafford County school officials say.

A presentation made to the Stafford County School Board outlined the status of local schools after the first four weeks of the 2021-22 school year. According to Robert Bingham, principal of H.H. Poole Middle School, student morale is higher than last year with virtual learning.

Bingham recounted how the students were more social and communicative with each other in person than they had been the previous year during the pandemic.

"It was a sad sight to see," said Bingham. "During the hybrid learning students wouldn't talk to each other. The halls were silent.

Bingham had received emails from parents telling him and other staff members about how exciting and happy their children were to return to in-person learning in the schools.

One issue that they're having, however, is the overflow of students wanting to participate in activities and after-school programs. As it stands, more students are trying out for more sports and activities currently being offered, a school spokeswoman said.

The school division did not cite which after-school sports were the most popular.

Bingham also reported on the social and emotional support that is being offered by having a full-time social worker with teachers in the classroom in both the middle and high schools. Part of the goal of the in-class social workers and the teaching staff is implementing restorative practices such as classroom circles, restorative trust, conflict resolution, and accountability.

Alexandria City Public Schools provides an outline of restorative practices:

• Blame, shame, punishment, and exclusion are not working for our youth, our teachers, or our communities.
• Pushing youth out of our spaces and communities is the opposite of what they need.
• Misbehavior is an opportunity to learn needed skills that we aren't seizing enough.
• Restorative practices are effective at addressing the disproportionality of discipline on students of color.

The return of the five-day school week was also trumpeted due to the ability of the teachers to monitor and intervene with the student's progress in learning. This is a change from the hybrid model, according to Bingham, which limited the ability of teachers to check in on student progress and students being unable to ask questions.

The schools have also been opening early to allow students to get breakfast and use the time to catch up on lessons by asking teachers for help before heading to class. Teachers are also continuing to teach students who are currently under quarantine so that those students don't miss any lesson time through the Chromebooks that were distributed last year.

Also addressed was the learning loss that the county schools had experienced during the pandemic. Part of that is a focus on teachers working with each other as well as hiring teacher's assistants to help with small group instruction.

Beyond the initial stage, there are also plans in the later stages to have screened in reading and math classes for support and interventions for students who may be struggling and developing strategies to help those students in need of personalized attention.

The School Board was also informed of the continued use of social distancing and other protocols to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, such as mask-wearing, hand washing, and disinfection of desks in between classes.