With Tracy High and TUSD campuses being put on hold for returning, many safety and sanitation policies have been made to keep the staff and students safe during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Even though students and staff are not returning on campus on January 4th of next year, the school has begun to take the necessary steps for students to come back in a safer environment.

One of the main focuses was the hybrid model where students will be put in two different groups and show up on campus for only a certain amount of days at school, so they can minimize the amount of people that will be on campus.

Both groups in the hybrid model will be in alphabetical order by last name. Group A with the last names starting with A-L will be on campus learning on Monday and Thursday each week. On Tuesdays and Fridays Group A will be doing distance learning while Group B will be attending on campus learning.

Group B with the last names beginning with M-L will attend campus on Tuesday and Friday. Mondays and Thursdays Group B will have distance learning when Group A is going to be on campus. Every Wednesday both groups will be doing distance learning at home every week.

With campuses opening in 2nd semester new bell schedules are made for the new hybrid model. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday classes start at 7:55 a.m. with forty- minute periods and campus gets dismissed at 1:25 p.m. On Wednesday each week which is the distance learning days for both group of students will be an early release day starting at 8:20 a.m. with twenty- five minute periods and classes end at 12:15 p.m.

Tracy High campus will have three drop off and pick- up zones and all gates are going to be open before and after school so students entering or leaving campus can maintain social distancing. The three locations where the drop off and pick- up zones will be at on Tracy High’s campus is the front of A building, AG parking lot, and the front of D building.

Students and staff will require to do a self- check before going on campus for any signs of COVID- 19. For all students they will be having a temperature check daily in their first period class and with a temperature of below 100 the student can stay on campus, but if they are above 100 degrees then the student will be sent home or put into a quarantined area separated from the other students until further instruction about the situation.

Lynn Dell Hawkins assistant principle at Tracy High School who is ahead of sanitation around campus mentions classroom cleaning supplies and possible procedures.

“I would like to think that if we were to come back, there will be procedures in place when you enter classrooms. There will be temperature checks, hand sanitizers, and desk spacing,” Hawkins said.

Teachers in the beginning of when campus opens will be giving instructions and class safety for all students. They will teach the students about washing hands and avoid touching around the face as much as possible. Not just in the classrooms, but hand sanitizers will be placed all over the campus for students and staff. Everyone on campus must wear mask according to the California Health Department.

“Even though you are not here our custodians are still sanitizing classrooms, bathrooms, and doorknobs. I would expect that we will continue to keep our campus safe,” said Hawkins.

Every classroom will have liquid hand sanitizer and even in the hallways inside the big buildings around campus. Classrooms with sinks in them will have running water and refillable soap at all times and washing hands will happen frequently for students and staff.

Flow of traffic for students inside the hallways of the big buildings on campus including the library and cafeteria. Signs about social distancing will be put inside the hallways and classrooms with arrows showing the flow of traffic inside the offices and the hallways. For example, certain doors upstairs and downstairs in A building will be used for exits only and entrances only. Including the stairs inside A and D building certain stairs inside will only have the foot traffic to go up or down depending where they are located. Even the stairs outside the big buildings on campus will only have a one direction flow of traffic as well.

Matt Shrout the Athletic Director of Tracy High School and the weight training teacher gives details about how athletics has been shut down and the weight training room until further notice with mentioning students wearing mask and being separated.

“Possibly in groups with mask will be allowed, but we are not sure. P.E.  or athletics has not been told what we will be allowed to do when we come back.” Shrout said.

The district has not came up with a plan yet for weight training classes nor P.E. Athletic classes so it will be shut down until a safe plan comes up for students to come back.

“As of now we will not be allowed in the weight room until the district comes up with a plan on how to keep it clean and safe,” Shrout said.

Classroom supplies will be discouraged like art supplies or lab equipment will not be used by students if campuses open up to allow students.

Andrew Hutton a Science teacher at Tracy High mentions how labs will possibly be done in classrooms.

“Because the three main science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) are lab classes we are required to do labs to keep accreditation from different universities. The type of labs however will depend upon the individual teacher. Some teachers may elect to do virtual labs where every student will work individually and some will modify physical labs,” Hutton said.

With art classes the classrooms provide a lot of supplies like paint brushes and colored pencils for all the students, but they will not be used in the classroom if campus opens back up.

Catherine Smutny an Art Teacher at Tracy High School gives details about supplies in the classroom, “For now sharing of supplies is going to be strongly discouraged. I will highly, highly encourage students to bring their own supplies. But if he or she doesn’t have them, I will have sets of supplies,” Smutny says.