Peabody Students Happy To Be Back In Classroom Full-Time

PEABODY, MA — For the first time in more than a year, Peabody elementary school students are going to school five days a week with full in-classroom learning.

As part of a schedule to bring back all students who wish to have in-classroom learning this school year, students in Brown, Burke, Center, McCarthy, South, Welch and West elementary schools returned to the classroom full-time this week.

Peabody middle and high school students are due to return April 7.

"Today is the day we have been waiting for and working towards," Brown Principal Lauren King said. "Having all our in-person students back together again, where they belong, makes us feel whole for the first time in over a year.

"The energy is contagious. I am not sure who was the most excited — the staff, the students or the families."

Students had been in a hybrid-learning model since September.

Last month, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sent a directive that hybrid model should discontinue, that elementary students should return full-time by April 5 and middle-school students should by April 28. A date for high school students to return full-time statewide will be announced in April.

"It feels great. I love seeing all their faces in person," said Tricia Hosman, a first-grade teacher at Center Elementary. "We got so much more accomplished today."

"Students were bubbling with excitement that they were back to school together," said Nicole Zaffini, a first-grade teacher at Burke Elementary.

The school celebrated the occasion with decorations and socially distanced visits from Sammy the Bulldog, Peabody Police Chief Thomas Griffin and McGruff the Crime Dog.

"Today was a wonderful day," said Furnell McGrath, a second-grade teacher at the Carroll School. "Seeing the students interact with classmates that they have not seen in person in over a year was an amazing experience.

"These kids definitely have missed learning alongside one another."

Families have the option of keeping students in fully remote learning through at least the end of the 2020-21 school year.

Peabody Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala said two weeks ago that families of 320 of the 487 elementary school-age students who have been in fully-remote learning since September intend to keep them out of the classroom through the end of the school year.

But for many who have been learning on the computer at least half the week for six months, with varying degrees of success, this week is a good week in Peabody.

"It feels good to be back in school full-time, because instead of sitting on a computer, I get to see everyone face-to-face normally, with masks," said Olivia Guarino, a fifth-grade student at Brown Elementary."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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