It’s been nearly one month since all DoDEA school students and staff returned to in-class learning. According to Pacific West District Superintendent Dr. Jeff Arrington from their school population approximately 2,000 students are face to face with the remaining 400 opting for virtual learning and they managed to remain COVID-free.

"The one thing I would say right now, people seem to understand this is a situation where safety is the most important thing we are doing and so it really hasn’t been a struggle kids keep their masks on," he said. 

Arrington says to date there have been no positive cases of COVID-19 reported amongst students or staff.

"Related to the school, or exposure in the school or covid cases, we have had zero across those 2,000 students," he said. 

Joint Region Marianas Commander Rear Admiral John Menoni explained the key to the zero positives. 

"At the end of the day, I hope everybody realizes that this can’t be a zero-tolerance mentality when it comes to these schools 5:09 just like we can’t have a zero-tolerance mentality on our ships concerning covid," he said. "We know when you put big group of people together despite your best efforts you may get a positive in there and then you just have to fight through it. Don't give up the ship, keep getting after it every day."

It was on Oct. 26 when DoDEA made the announcement of returning to in-class learning. 

 Arrington says there are numerous mitigation strategies in place for the health and safety of students and employees that begin before arriving in the classroom.

"About two hours or so before a student leaves their home they need to be screened for covid symptoms, temperature you know mom, dad helps to check off they don’t have any of the symptoms that indicate they are symptomatic or positive for COVID," he said. 

Then once leaving the home, the mask must go on prior to getting on the bus or dropped off by a parent. Upon entering school everyone must sanitize their hands. Arrington says the classroom have been re-arranged to allow for social distancing.

"So a lot of the extra things that have been taken out of the room, the things that would normally take up more space so we can spread desks out," he said. "And we’ve taken out carpets and things like that that maybe would hold on to something like a virus longer. And we also have purchased a physical barrier, we call them or plastic shielding for every single student. So even though they are spread out and masks are one there also a physical barrier, clear, plastic barrier divider that sits on every kids desk with wings that come out from the side where the head is 3:02 so not only does it encapsulate around the space, the side and front of them but it has little wings that come out in case the student turns to one side or the other and have a situation where there would be an additional risk."

Arrington says with a majority of the school population opting for in-class learning, the class size has remained fairly the same with about 18 students in a class. He says lunch periods have been spread out in order to reduce the number of students at a time, with the lunch tables having plastic physical barriers for each seat.

As for the morale, Rear Admiral Menoni says he’s heard both sides of the argument.

"A lot of teachers and parents I have talked to are very thankful that we are back to in-classroom learning and then there are some that are concerned and rightly so," he said. "It’s been going well. And we are cautiously optimistic it’s going to continue to go well. The students are very much complying with the mitigation measures that the schools have set up."

Arrington says now a month in and their school community is comfortable with the new norm, wanting to expand learning strategies. However he says, what’s more important is the optimal learning environment for students being stabilized.

"Right now it’s about keeping the students in school where we know they learn the best so that we don’t take away their opportunities for right now and in the future," he said.