It has been so great over the past few weeks having our kids all back in school.

We know that most kids won’t admit they are excited to be in school, but the smiles we see on so many faces tell us how good it feels to be back in a more typical routine. Staff at each our school sites worked to make the first days of school special for our kids.

At some sites, staff was waiting outside to greet kids with warm smiles as they were dropped of on the first morning, some sites had music playing, and a few had scheduled a visit from our Tiger Mascot to give high fives to kids as they arrived at school. All sites had extra staff in the hallways to help ensure kids found their lockers and first block classrooms.

Those extra things that these staff members did, probably without even thinking about it, helped make kids feel welcome and safe. Coming into school after a typical summer can be intimidating for some; after the unusual last few months we’ve had these extra warm welcomes were great to see.

We all recognize that part of the social and emotional connection our kids have to school is outside the classroom, oftentimes through extracurricular activities, sports, clubs, and/or student organizations. I believe one of the best parts about coming back to school this fall is getting back to full swing with our fall activities.

Not only are we holding games, meets, and tournaments, but we are able to host these events with spectators in the stands again. As we work to help kids and our community feel connected to school, these events are a great way to help encourage that.

New to our events this year is a paperless ticketing option; anyone can go to our website to find a link to “Ticket Spiket,” or download the app to their phone, to purchase tickets to MPS Tiger events that can be used to check in to events.

Also new this year; anyone age 60 or older can attend a regular season home event for free.

With a lot of home events still coming, we continue to encourage our community to come out and cheer on our Tigers.

When I’m talking about our activities department, I feel I need to also call out a bit of recognition to our activities director, Bruce Remme. Bruce has worked for Marshall Public Schools for 27 years, where he has taught fourth grade while coaching both football and basketball before he became the Marshall Activities Director.

Under his leadership, our teams, clubs, and activities have had high levels of success. His work at Marshall Public Schools is greatly appreciated, and while we know it will be very difficult to find a replacement, we wish him all the best.

Of course, COVID and our mitigation strategies around it remain a daily conversation and focus at the schools as well. Our priority remains in having our students in the classroom for full face-to-face instruction as much as we can safely provide. That means a continual review of the protocols that are in place, guidelines available to us, and conversations with local healthcare professionals. Some of the most valuable data we have when reviewing our protocols includes the number of positive cases and close contacts among our staff and students.

We’ve had to make some adjustments to our Return2Learn plan that through these ongoing conversations and review we feel will help keep our students safely in the classrooms. The primary change we made was related to required quarantines with students identified as close contacts. Anyone interested in knowing more about what the most current safety plan looks like can view the plan on our school website under “Return2Learn”.

We know that by working together, we can promote healthy schools and community.

— Jeremy Williams is the superintendent at Marshall Public Schools