At the beginning of the school year, we started attending school on a “hybrid” schedule. A students attend on Monday and Tuesday and B students attend on Wednesday and Thursday, and the groups rotate on Fridays. With the Coronavirus, the hybrid schedule has helped tremendously with being able to socially distant. Having a school of over two thousand students, it would be insane to be asked to social distance with everyone here on a normal schedule, so hybrid has been very beneficial, and it has worked successfully throughout the school year.

However, last month, Governor Henry McMaster sent out an order that all schools in South Carolina be back to a full schedule by March 22. Therefore, this week (March 1-5), is our last week of hybrid. Next week, we begin going to school four days a week with both A day students and B day students, and we will all have Friday off. We will be on this schedule for two weeks, and then school will go back to “normal.” Masks will be mandatory, and we now have shields in the classroom to prevent germ spread and to keep people safe. But is this worth it? Or should we just have stuck with Hybrid?