Bianca Sligh returned to Kenwood Academy High School on Monday for her senior year after spending the last school year remote learning because of the pandemic.

       “I would hate to do senior year on a computer,” Bianca said. “Especially because of all the stuff that comes along with senior year, like prom.”

       Bianca’s parents snapped photos of her and a friend as they waited to enter the South Side high school. Chicago Public Schools welcomed students back to classrooms across the city Monday as the district resumed full-time in-person learning for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Chicago in March 2020.

       Students wait in line before entering Monday, Aug. 30, 2021 on the first day of school at Kenwood Academy. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

       Parents expressed excitement and fear on the first day of school, which comes amid a rise in coronavirus cases in Chicago and around the country thanks to the more contagious delta variant. There’s also a lot of uncertainty as CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union continue to negotiate a fall agreement, with rhetoric heating up in recent days.

       CPS says it has the proper protocols in place to keep students and staff members safe, but CTU has criticized the district for “rolling back” critical elements of the plan forged during the last school year that allowed for students to return to classrooms in stages.

       An indoor mask mandate is in place, and CPS is requiring its employees get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 15. Students can opt to be screened weekly for the coronavirus with a nasal swab, but they are not required to test unless they are an unvaccinated or half-vaccinated student-athlete and it’s their sports season.

       Social distancing has been cut from 6 feet to 3 feet where possible. CPS says some students will eat breakfast and lunch in their classrooms, while others will dine in their cafeterias to allow for distancing. The district has stopped requiring a temperature check and completion of a health screener questionnaire to enter school buildings in favor of an at-home symptoms checklist.

       Students from Socorro Sandoval Elementary, line up wearing face masks as a precaution from COVID-19 and carry cleaning supplies on Aug. 30, 2021. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

       Bianca Sligh’s father, Raphael, approves of CPS’s response to the pandemic.

       “None of us really know what to do or how to handle this,” he said. “But I think they’ve covered their bases, and I think everybody’s ready.”

       Most children and parents wore face coverings outside Socorro Sandoval Elementary School in the Gage Park neighborhood on Monday, but many did not. Masks are required inside school buildings and for some outdoor activities such as recess.

       Parent Micaela Aguirre said she is glad school is back in session, though she knows the pandemic is far from over.

       “Going back to school is a way of learning to live with it. This is the new normal and we must continue to wear our face mask and use hand sanitizer,” said Aguirre, who has a first and fourth grader attending Socorro Sandoval.

       Nikia Jefferson said she is glad to see her third-grade son, Melvin, back at Skinner West Elementary School. She noted how the Near West Side school is having kids enter through three separate doors to reduce crowding, but said she won’t have a sense of the effectiveness of the protocols until Melvin gives her updates.

       “You can only do so much with a school, with a population this big, but I mean, we’re pleased so far,” said Jefferson, of McKinley Park.

       Melvin Jefferson II, second left, watches as his son Melvin Jefferson III, heads to his first day of third grade at Skinner West Elementary on Aug. 30, 2021. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

       Portions of CPS’s safety plans were announced just last week, and some parents have threatened to keep their kids home until their children are given a remote learning option. CPS is offering a Virtual Academy for a few hundred “medically fragile” students, the only e-learning program available. Plans have emerged online for a “CPS Sick Out,” a movement that encourages parents not to send their kids the first week of school.

       Other parents were left scrambling to arrange Monday transportation for their child after a mass resignation of school bus drivers led to the cancellation of bus service for about 2,100 CPS students. The district has offered affected students a $1,000 stipend for the first two weeks, with $500 per month after that. The Chicago Transit Authority is providing free rides Monday to all CPS students, from kindergarten to 12th grade.

       Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed the problems on a countrywide shortage of commercial drivers and on the mass resignation of drivers from private transportation contractors, which she said was because they did not want to follow the CPS vaccination mandate for all workers and contractors.

       “This is not on CPS and I want that to be very clear,” she said.

       tswartz@tribpub.com

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