In the weekly update email on Friday, January 22nd, LPS announced a policy change that would allow high school seniors across the district to return to full time in person learning for the rest of the semester, or until more Covid-19 developments mandate another change.
“We have been working with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department to determine how and when it will be safe to offer full time in-person opportunities for all high school students,” the email from Lincoln Public Schools read. “While we feel it is not the right time to offer that to everyone in high school right now, we have information to support offering all seniors the ability to come back full time to guarantee a successful end to their high school experience. Seniors can choose to come back full time February 1, or they can remain in the 3/2 schedule or 100% remote.”
Some seniors are looking forward to this opportunity, while others aren’t so sure about it. East senior Evan Heller is among those who have decided to go back. “I’m very excited about this,” Heller said. “I finally get a chance to see my friends on B days. I feel like this is what I’ve been wanting the whole year, and it’s going to be somewhat like a normal senior year.”
While most seniors interviewed by the Oracle said they were looking forward to this, some have their own reasons to stay partially or fully remote. These include concerns over the emerging variants of Covid-19, the chance of exposing a high risk family member to the virus, and preferring zoom learning over in-person learning at this point in time.