Omaha Public Schools made the decision to send students back to school for the full five-day week, with high schoolers returning at 100% capacity on Feb. 17, 2021. This was quite the announcement to hear as OPS has held off on sending students fully back to school for several months after all other Omaha area school districts. Such a drastic change in OPS student schedules welcomed many positive things to celebrate and look forward to.  

For many students, walking into the building on Feb. 17 was the first time returning to Central since the beginning of school closures in March of 2020. This can obviously be quite the adjustment, since learning from a bedroom for a year can definitely disrupt the normal routine of waking up early and walking the never-ending flights of stairs. Not to mention, seeing half of friends’ faces that you have not seen in a year is a step in the right direction when it comes to gaining normalcy in everyday life.  

Speaking of normalcy, this is something that people worldwide have been wishing for since the pandemic hit, high school students included. When hearing the news that school would return to 100% capacity, it was a taste of real life that people have been craving.  

Being able to escape the monotonous days of sleeping, eating, working, and learning all in the same environment will bring brighter days to students across Omaha. In the past, school has been viewed as the place students try to leave, but it could now become the place students wish to be. This is not for the stressful homework assignments or dreaded unit tests, but rather for the sense of feeling connected to others in a time where it is one of the hardest things to do.  

Of course, there are plenty of precautions that need to be taken in order to make the school day a safe place for every student in the building. Because students, teachers, and staff alike are searching for the coveted feeling of normalcy, everyone is playing their part in hourly sanitations of classrooms and always wearing face coverings. As seen through OPS’s recent decision, our community is one step closer to safely returning to life, pre-pandemic.