Columbia Public School students and teachers complete first week of full return

COLUMBIA, MO (KMIZ)

Columbia Public Schools completed it's first week of full return of in-person classes for all grade levels.

CPS students headed back to the classroom this past week, as April 5 marked the first day of student's in-person class schedule. All CPS students were on a hybrid model. Elementary students held in-person classes 4 days a week with one virtual learning day; while middle and high school did in-seat learning 2 days a week with 3 days of virtual classes.

Middle and high school students haven't been back to a full in person return since this time last year. Both grade levels have been on a 2-day in person learning hybrid model; as this is the first time students are physically going to classes 5 days a week.

Kathy Steinhoff, CPS high school teacher, says her students were hesitant during the first week of full return.

“I think a lot of them were really hesitant and nervous about it but we survived our first week and it is really good for all of us to be around each other again. I think there’s a lot of safety concerns but it’s going well so far," Steinhoff said.

Now that all Missourians have become eligible to receive a vaccine, some of her students are making plans to get vaccinated if they're of age.

Steinhoff says many teachers are waiting to get their second vaccine dose. As staff members are completing the vaccination process and some students are interested in starting the process, Steinhoff says it allows educators to feel more comfortable and not worry about safety as much.

“As teachers that’s one of our biggest concerns. Yes we feel safer for ourselves but we’re still concerned about our students getting sick and their families, so the more that we can get vaccinated, the better it will be," Steinhoff said.

As students and teachers returned to the classrooms full time CPS has managed to keep it's COVID-19 case rates low. As many CPS employees have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, when teachers became eligible as apart of Phase 1B Tier 3 on March 15.

As of April 9, the CPS 14-Day Case Rate Tracker shows 9.9 cases per 10,000 people and 14 new cases. The past few weeks CPS has seen it's lowest numbers of this school year. The case rates have significantly decreased since it's all time high of 111.7 cases per 100,000 back in November.

Stienhoff says she's interested to see how the case rate numbers continue on a trend as students and staff are around each other more than usual now.

“I think the challenge we have ahead of us these next couple weeks is by the end of the week I was already starting to hear that some students were testing positive and so there were questions about quarantine and it will be interesting to see how that plays out as we start to be around each other more often," Steinhoff said.

Substitute teacher fill rates continue to be a challenge for CPS. Now with a full return, available substitute teachers are being stretched thin across the district. Steinhoff says one day this week there were no subs available as many teachers had to stay home due to second vaccine dose side effects.

“We’re running into what we saw probably last year before the pandemic hit, where yes there are certain days where were not getting our subs filled and that is a real pressure on the entire system when that happens," Steinhoff said.

The state has administered 3,038,964 vaccine doses as of Sunday. 30.9% of the state has started the vaccination process. 1,235,707 people in Missouri are considered fully vaccinated.

Boone County has administered 108,874 vaccine doses. 42,312 Boone County residents have completed in vaccination process. 23.4% of the county's population are considered to be fully vaccinated.