Many schools have tried to come up with a good way to deal with school while trying to keep their students and faculty safe and healthy. Westminster Christian Academy has come up with their own unique solution for decreasing the spread of COVID-19 and keeping their students in school. 

The students schedule, which usually ends at 3:00 pm, has been modified so that it ends at 1:15 pm instead. Students are not able to eat lunch to avoid being in a crowded cafeteria for a long time. This is very different from many of the other schools near us. It’s a great idea to not have lunch, although the downside is that it prevents students from having a lot of social time during school.

Despite the lack of social time, many students have liked this shortened schedule for different reasons. Alex Shoemaker, 9th grade, reports,”I enjoy the new schedule because I get more time to do my homework and my grades have improved because of that.”

CBC, a private, Christian highschool for boys, is coming to school two days a week and staying home two days a week based on where your last name lands in the alphabet. This is a good way to allow students to come to school while also making sure the school doesn’t get crowded so that they can socially distance. John Burroughs, Chaminade, Villa Duchesne, Visitation Academy, and Whitfield are giving kids the choice to go to school full day, or stay home and do ZOOM classes. If kids choose to go to school, it will be like a normal day except with masks and health checks. If kids choose to stay home they can log into zoom for each class and learn from there. That way kids who might be in the high risk category can choose to stay safe at home while other students that want to go to school are able to take the risk. This hybrid option of coming to school or staying home is easily the most popular option. Public schools are not even coming into their building. They are doing all online classes so they don’t risk any outbreaks. While this does stop the spread, it makes it harder for a lot of students to learn. Although some private schools are also taking this method, very few of them are.

    As of this moment, Westminster COVID cases, despite students coming to classes each day, are at zero. This demonstrates how well Westminster has done in creating and reinforcing protocols, such as students having their own, personal protective shields surrounding them at their desks for each class. This is not to imply that all of the choices by other schools have not been well thought out and researched. Each school has done what they think best benefits the students and faculty. However, it does show the uniqueness and problem solving skills of WCA.