COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the current school year so far. With starting online,  to going back to traditional learning, to having positive cases, this year has been nothing short of chaotic. The spread of the virus around Yukon High School had become apparent. While there are things in place to help prevent the spread, such as masks, social distancing, and a 14-day quarantine to those exposed, it still leaves one to wonder, what could be done to help prevent the spread even more?

Some students wish that we could return to an online schedule, to help prevent the spread such as Junior Cade Parent. 

“I would rather be online because I can get it done faster and have less social interaction,” Parent said.

While this would limit the spread dramatically, it still raises other problems that could hinder student performance in the grade books. Sophomore Nick Proctor does not like virtual for that reason.  

“I find it too easy to get distracted at home so my grades drop,” Proctor said.

Senior Snow Forth thinks there are options inside the classroom to help with controlling the spread. 

“I personally prefer learning in person because I focus on my work better; however, I believe there should be a safer way of doing it,” Forth said. “I wish that we could social distance within our classes and still wear masks so there would be less exposure and people quarantining without having the virus.” 

With all these options on the table, we have to wonder if we could do some sort of mixed schedule. Doing this would require a split “A-B” schedule. This type of schedule would allow for more room within the school building as half of the students would be there at once, and in case of a breakout, less students would be exposed. An A-B schedule would allow students to get in person instruction, which was the drawback for online school. 

Sophomore Jorden Varghese believes that switching to an A-B schedule would be beneficial for the school.

“I believe that full time in person is not good for long term opening of the school,” Varghese said. “COVID will probably continue to worsen resulting in not being able to be in person at all.”

He also added that he believes it would be beneficial for the learning environment as well. “A-B is truly the best option because you can limit the spread of the virus, keep students in school, and continue in a healthy and positive learning environment,” Varghese said.

While our school goes forward with combating these new, never before seen challenges, it is apparent that we maintain some sort of stability with our schedule, and an A-B schedule seems to allow the most flexibility to do what is needed to combat the virus, but to also keep students in person and continually learning in the traditional, and most effective way.