LAURINBURG — The buildings of Scotland County Schools were a little bit more full with students on Monday as spring break ended.

On March 22, the Scotland County Board of Education voted to bring students in all grades from the Plan B hybrid model which had students attending two days of in-person learning to Plan A which would have students in classrooms four days a week.

For staff at the schools, many were happy just to have more students back in the buildings.

“It’s been amazing, just walking the classrooms this morning and seeing them all full of students made my heart happy,” said Laurel Hill Elementary Principal Laura Bailey. “Everything has been running really smoothly so far. I couldn’t have asked for a better first day back. We’ve continued with the procedures and precautions that we were doing with the hybrid model to keep both our students and staff safe.”

Carver Middle School Principal Patrick Peed also said that, at Carver, things had been running smoothly on the first morning.

“We are very excited to have so many students back into the building and we’re excited that we’re starting to approach something that looks like normal,” Peed said. “The kids have been excited, the teachers have been excited to have them back and everything has been running smoothly. Everyone is in compliance with the COVID guidelines put in place and everyone is just happy to be back.”

At Scotland High, a little less than 50% of the students had come back for the four-day in-person learning, but those that were there seemed excited.

“It’s been an awesome feeling to have students back,” said Scotland High Principal Larry Obeda. “The students who are here are very excited and it’s one step closer to returning to some normalcy for everyone. It’s been kind of like an extended summer for them since they haven’t been in the buildings.

“We have a little less than half the students back in the building while the rest are remaining virtual but the ones who are here are all smiles and seem very excited to be back,” he added.

Students are still receiving temperature checks before being allowed in the buildings for the day. There was a change to some of the protocols, such as originally having 6 feet of distance between students and staff but recently there were changes to the Strong Schools North Carolina Toolkit followed by the school system which maintains students to maintain 3 feet of distance.

Reach Katelin Gandee at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe