GREAT FALLS — Back to school is just around the corner, and students, teachers, and faculty are expected to wear a mask in many cases. Kindergarten enrollment you think would be down because of COVID-19, but GFPS tells us it's been staying steady.
Ruth Uecker, assistant superintendent for K-6, says things have been right on track: "Last spring, we held our traditional kindergarten registration process, which is traditionally the first Wednesday, May 6 this past year, we were kind of concerned that it would affect our enrollment. But actually, it didn't. We were pleasantly surprised that our numbers came in right at the target that we were hoping for. So it didn't impact how it might have affected how we gathered enrollment and what that process looked like. And we were very cautious during the COVID timing of it. But other than that, it did not impact our registration numbers at the time."
We also asked about the use of masks by children: "Yes, we will work with our little kindergarten students, kids of all ages in our school, to learn a process and protocol. They won't necessarily have to wear them all day long. Still, yes, during transition times, movement throughout the building, whenever there are situations where we cannot maintain an adequate social distance from other individuals, they'll be asked to wear their masks. When a teacher and student are working closely together, they both will need to wear their masks. So we will teach that process to all other routines and procedures in the fall of the year. This will be a new routine and system that will add to all the others that we will be teaching in the fall."
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