Open the pod bay doors, HAL!

We are starting to move back to full in-person school attendance, and many of us have mixed feelings about it. Between wearing masks, using the plastic dividers, and seeing our friends, there is plenty of good and bad that we see throughout our days here at school.
For seniors coming back in to school, it was very exciting since they haven’t been able to be fully in-person since March 2020. And with the sheer number of people now back, the traffic is insane. Between people trying to get to their parking spots in the morning and all the parents dropping off their non-driving kids, the parking lot gets packed, causing many to be late to class in the morning. Once we get into the school, we now have three-sided plastic barriers in all of the classrooms at each of the desks. It’s not a perfect solution: it’s hard to see through the barriers because they leave a reflection of everything on them, and they are known to fall down often at the slightest wind or errant backpack. Senior Mike Denniger says, “Well, I see what they are going for, and I think it does help in some way, but for the most part they don’t extend out far, and they are easily toppled over.” The barriers are now allowed to be removed according to the CDC guidelines but that decision is the school’s choice to keep them or not.
Another positive aspect of being back full time is being able to spend a lot more face-to-face time with our teachers. Being able to ask my teachers questions (without pushing a button and interrupting the whole class or having to show up during designated office hours) and have them give me real time feedback on my work has helped my grades improve this quarter. With the opportunity to be in the classroom with my teachers and colleagues, it has helped my focus in all of my classes since I personally do not learn as well online. I know other students have been feeling this way as well, such as freshmen Madi Fickera who states, “Finally being able to be full in person is finally giving me the chance to gain more of that high school experience for my freshmen year.” As seniors, we are feeling this way as well, since we are able to now spend more of the last few months we have at Brewster with a more normal schedule.
As an NJROTC student many of us have been disappointed with not being able to go to drill meets, the Intrepid museum in NYC, orienteering nationals, and many more excursions that we usually take, but being in school full time has been great for the unit. We have been able to start doing drill and uniform which we haven’t been able to do all year. Drilling is one of the largest aspects of NJROTC and finally being able to do that activity with the freshmen is huge for us in terms of bonding as a unit, growing as a program, and developing practices to pass down, which is also helping us with the freshmen getting more of a normal first year class experience. Color guard is another aspect of NJROTC that is very important to us, and since football games finally started, our numbers in color guard have increased. Being able to go to the football games to show our support while doing color guard is giving us more of the normal events we would go to in a non-COVID year.
The school is beginning to resemble more of what it looked like before this pandemic with in-person learning being put into effect, seniors now driving themselves in, and the school finally being able to welcome back a good portion of its students. However, with these new revelations, and with seniors coming back, juniors, who previously had parking spots for this year, now have had them rescinded as priority parking goes to seniors coming back full time. As a result of this change, 48 juniors have lost their parking spots, although it’s possible for some of these juniors to get their spots back after a full count is taken of how many seniors are using a parking spot. Without the cohorts, parking spots will again only be assigned to one person and parking tags will be redistributed. Everything is still up in the air as to whether or not some juniors will be getting their parking spots back. Everything is still yet to be seen, so don’t give up hope yet!
Being in school has many challenges and benefits to us as students at Brewster High School but, we are fortunate enough to be able to spend the end of the year completely in person if you chose to.