White Mountain Middle School makes summer school happen despite pandemic

WHITE CITY, Ore.— Students have been attending in-person classes for summer school at White Moutain Middle School since July 27th.

Staff at the school have had to adjust classrooms and make sure they’re following all the necessary requirements to make sure students are safe.

“If it’s not safe, if parents don’t feel like it’s a safe place to be, then we can’t do our job, we can’t provide kids with education,” Principal Karina Rizo said. “So we’re doing everything we can.”

Rizo says the school, is cleaned multiple times a day with a multi-surface disinfectant called Alpha HP. The disinfectant kills germs including Coronavirus.

“All the desks, the chairs, everything has to be sprayed down,” Rizo said. “Then the cafeteria tables are sprayed down at least four times a day so we go through a lot.”

In addition to the cleaning procedures, students and staff have many guidelines they have to follow. That includes staying six feet away from each other, wearing a mask at all times, and walking in specific directions down hallways.

Some teachers are taking the temperatures of students. Students also are not allowed to share anything and are assigned specifics desks and supplies.

“The students only use their materials, we definitely don’t let them share anything,” 7th and 8th-grade teacher, Emmanuel Balan, said.

Balan says the way the rooms are set up is unlike a typical classroom. Only 10 students are allowed in a room at a time, compared to the more than 20 that would be in the classroom during a regular semester.

He also says they’ve tried to make everything online, to ensure there’s less of an exchange of papers and items.

Balan says students, for the most part, have been able to follow the rules.

“We see the middle kids and they’re in line, they’re maintaining their distance they’re maintaining their masks,” Balan said. “My seventh and eighth graders are all over the place and I have to constantly remind them.”

Principal Rizo says the school is able to host in-person classes because state guidelines for summer school are different then they are for the fall.

The Eagle Point School District plans to go completely remote for the beginning of the fall school year.

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