Queen Creek school district returns for 1st day of in-person learning

PHOENIX — The first day of school has taken on a whole new meaning in 2020.

The Queen Creek Unified School District — which is located within Maricopa County — welcomed students back to campuses on Monday even though state-recommended benchmarks for the spread of COVID-19 have not been met.

As of Thursday, when the state’s data dashboard showing the status of COVID-19 spread was last updated, Maricopa County met two benchmarks for the reopening range but was at least two weeks away in the third.

Queen Creek families who didn’t want to send their kids back yet had the option of continuing with online instruction, which started Aug. 3.

The district took numerous precautions in an effort to make students, parents and staff feel safe regarding the resumption of traditional in-class instruction.

All students, staff, volunteers and visitors over the age of 5 are required to wear a mask within any Queen Creek Unified School District campus.

“We’re trying to do our best and as parents, we know what’s at stake,” Queen Creek High School parent Amy Martinez said. “We understand what we’re doing and how we’re working with the school, not against the school.

“We want our children to learn in the best place that they’re supposed to be with their teachers. We want our teachers to feel supported and know that we love them and the very reason why we want our students to be in the class is because we recognize the importance of our teachers.”

The school district has also opened up its HVAC system in order to pull in more outside air into the classroom.

Queen Creek High School has implemented its own mitigation protocols as well, including a staggered lunch and class schedule.

The high school will alternate between classes on an every-other-day basis — much like a college schedule would — and have four different lunch periods.

“It is going to be different, it is, but I think they want to be here so badly that the kids are willing to do that,” Queen Creek High School parent Ashley Baird said.

“I sat down with both my kids and I said ‘Here’s the deal: I can homeschool you completely independent outside of school, you won’t have to wear a mask or you can go to school but you’ll have to wear a mask.’ And they both practically cried and said ‘We will wear a HazMat suit if it means we get to go back to school.'”

Officials at the neighboring J.O. Combs Unified School District, which is located in Pinal County, also made plans to start traditional on-campus instruction Monday but instead had to cancel all classes for the day, including online, after a large number of teachers called out sick.

Pinal County, like Maricopa, met two of the three benchmarks in the most recent data.

Public K-12 schools that, unlike in Queen Creek, aren’t yet offering traditional in-person classes do, however, have to provide on-site support services starting Monday for students who need a place to go or have specific needs.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross contributed to this story.

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