EDWARDSVILLE - For Dr. Steve Stuart, returning to Edwardsville High School for the first day of back to school on Thursday was an emotional return. Stuart was once an assistant principal at the high school before spending the last 13 years at Lincoln Middle School as principal.
Dr. Stuart started at Edwardsville High School July 1, who replaced Dr. Dennis Cramsey after retiring.
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“It looked like a lot of smiles on the faces under the masks, but of course we couldn’t see them,” Dr. Stuart said. “It is great to be back here; I was once an assistant principal here for seven years. There are still a lot of familiar faces here. My father was superintendent of Edwardsville schools before this school was being built, so I have an emotional tie to it. I have great people top to bottom and it is great being back to school.”
Dr. Stuart said the students and staff followed the guidelines of wearing masks and directional arrows and the staff did a great job with following safety precautions.
“I think it went smoothly,” Dr. Stuart said of the beginning. “The first day of any normal school year has some hiccups. There are a lot of new safety guidelines.”
Dr. Stuart said parents take part with the students in a daily self check list. The students take their temperature and check to see if they are having any flu like symptoms such as sore throat, vomiting, nausea. If a student is healthy and doesn’t have these symptoms, they sign one of these self-check sheets. The employees also have the same check list sheet. The county has set the high temperature of 100.4 for students to stay home.
The Edwardsville High School principal said a lot of people put in “a lot of hours to make this plan come to its fruition.”
He said reducing the number of students in the building is really noticeable.
“As I went to classes, there were 8-10-12 kids and normally there are 30 to 32,” he said. “The hallways again were a lot less crowded. Hopefully this will allow us to keep being in school in person. There are a lot doing fully remote learning. I am glad parents had the option. If they felt more comfortable going the remote learning route I am glad they were able to have that option.
"I think the teachers and administration were glad to see the kids again. The teams are excited to get to work with the kids again.”
