April 6th was the first day, in over a year, when Selma High students came onto campus for in-person classes. 

The reintroduction of students to Selma High came in stages. Starting with Senior on Tuesday the 6th, Freshman on Thursday the 8th. The next week Juniors rejoineded us on Tuesday the 13th and Sophomores on Thursday the 15th.

The Selma Unified school board voted to allow interim superintendent Dr Shepard to open Selma to reopen their secondary schools when able. During this time, Fresno County had moved down into the red tier with their COVID-19 cases and stayed in that zone for the required weeks.

Because of COVID-19 restriction with classroom capacity, a waiting list had to be created for students coming back on campus. As the reopening goes on, more and more students are approved from waitlists to join in-person. 

With the first group to be back on campus being the seniors many were looking for the future. And as many traditional events have had to be canceled due to COVID-19 and the pandemic, giving seniors the opportunity to come back on campus for in-person classes allows them to claim some experiences of a traditional senior year.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Seniors Chloe Mendoza and Isabella Porras pose for a photo. Taken by James Jensen.

School schedule has been changed as well. For students who came back to school, classes  start at 8:05 A.M. and go until 11:04 A.M. The classes are still broken into A and B days, and the class timing stays the same for in-person students.  However, for the people who opted to stay home, their classes will begin at 12:05P.M. and end at 3:04P.M. For both in-person and distance learning students, the school hours they are not with the teacher are considered asynchronous work and is time for homework or any other class work.

“I feel the learning experience for the students that are able to be on campus is very positive, as they are somewhat getting into a routine for the remainder of the school year, ” said Mrs Loving.

For many students the change has made a big difference even though it’s only been a week. For some, the change from online to in person learning has been good for not only their learning process, but also their mental health. This is because being in-person means being able to communicate and be around friends for some. This is a great overall change because we are now able to move forward with our life and away from covid. 

“I feel really good about it,” says senior Nazish Iftiaz. “here is that little sense of normalcy that we never really got to experience, especially as seniors.”

The reopening for Selma High has been successful, even though there are only 9 weeks left for school.