On Saturday, Nov 14, the city of San Diego and San Diego County, went back into its purple tier. Many of us thought that there might be some hope that the Coronavirus would finally start to clear up and go away, but unfortunately, the cases started rising up and are spiking at about 33,000 in San Diego county alone with 1-2 thousand cases per day. Of course many of us are wondering, what will happen to the reopening plans at CAHS even though we are going back into the purple tier? This article will discuss what will happen and the plans the school has despite the rising cases and restrictions.

Reopening the CAHS studio campus will be a big step the school will have to take. The state of California allows any schools who were already open before the changing of the tiers, to stay open, meaning CAHS is not required to change any plans.  Principal Dana Moen, stated that “Since we are already open, moving into the purple tier does not force us to change our reopening plans. Certainly we will continue to reassess our plans and monitor our county health orders.” 

Because CAHS is making an attempt to open for the Spring session, the school is having to take more precautions to open up. There will be “masks, social distancing [and] frequent cleaning of surfaces. We are also adding a GPS Air Ionization System which will greatly clean the air in our classrooms. We will be raising money to pay for this system soon.” CAHS wants to and will make sure that all the students are safe by the time school reopens. In the meantime, we will continue to learn partially at home and partially at school. 

While some enjoy doing school in bed with pajamas on, others prefer going to school in person. One of these students, freshman Juliet Campbell, wishes she could have a normal high school experience. “I was looking forward to homecoming, choir and joining the swim team, which none of those seem like they are going to happen,” Campbell said. Additionally, many teenagers like Campbell are dealing with their emotional and mental health. “I’ve had a lot of struggles with mental and emotional health and stuff like that. [Quarantine] has more bad things about it than good,” Campbell said. 

While staying at home every day can sound positive, it can also lead to many distractions. “I feel like being away from class, … your teachers will make it harder, and there’s also that disconnect of authority. So when you’re in your own room and turn your camera off, then you can almost be or do anything you want. But that also makes you tend to have more distractions and you might use your phone more,” Campbell said. Campbell has high hopes that she and other students will be able to return to campus soon. “I feel like it will be a very slow process [and] I think that best case scenario, next semester we would be able to go on campus more and maybe next year we might be able to possibly fully open back up.”

Not only CAHS, but the Classical Academies are working hard to be able to reopen soon and to keep their students safe. “While we desperately want to have everyone back on campus, we are learning new and smarter ways to communicate and I think in the long run our teachers will be better equipped to support all learners with new strategies and technology for learning,” Principal Moen said. “For now, we need to keep our students safe and despite COVID-19, we will try our best efforts to get CAHS back to school where it will be a safe and good learning environment.”