'Excitement and energy’

Like other schools across the state, Harlan Elementary School in Mt. Pleasant was buzzing with excitement on Monday morning.

Monday was the first day of the 2021-22 school year, and the Harlan staff and administrators were excited to see their kindergarten through fifth-grade students return to the building.

“It’s awesome being back,” Principal Michael Gossen said. “All the teachers are excited.”

Third-grade teacher Kim Sherwood said that the first day of school is always exciting.

“The first day of school always brings lots of excitement and energy,” Sherwood said. “The kids are always excited, and the teachers are. It’s wonderful to see all the new faces in the building.”

It’s been two years since many schools had a “normal” first day of school.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed many students to various types of remote learning for the 2020-21 school year.

“We are back to school as normal,” Gossen said. “Here at Harlan, everybody’s back. All the kids that maybe were out on remote or hybrid learning are all back this year.

“We’re back in full force and full enrollment, so we’re happy to have everybody back.”

While school is back to normal, the cloud of COVID-19 still lingers.

“With everything going on, there’s a little anxiety, but hopefully, we won’t have too many problems,” third-grade teacher Jane Kinney said.

John Hand sat outside the school with his granddaughter, Nova Anderson, before she went in for her first day of kindergarten.

“It’s always good to be back to school,” Hand said. “Hopefully COVID doesn’t come back.”

Hand said he had no apprehensions about his granddaughter going to school in person.

“You have to continue life,” he said.

While state law prohibits any sort of mask mandates at schools, Gossen said they are still taking what precautions that they can.

“The only thing a little different from a normal year is that we are focusing on some more enhanced sanitization practices,” Gossen said. “Other than that, we are bringing the kids in as normal.”