More than 75% of students are back on campus, school officials say

More than 75 percent of students are attending most of the schools in the Vernon Township School District.

Superintendent Karen D’Avino and Assistant Superintendent Charles McKay announced on May 13 that all schools, except Vernon Township High School, had about 75 percent of students attending.

“We want students to feel that the end of this school year was something to grab ahold of,” McKay said. “The end of this school year was a sense that they had their lives back. Our teachers had their lives back, and we had some normalcy.”

Cedar Mountain School, which was at 77.1 percent in April, has increased its percentage to 78.4 percent. Rolling Hills is up to 78.4 percent.

Lounsberry Hollow opened at 75.7 percent of students attending and is now up to 76.9 percent. Glen Meadow is at 76.5 percent, up from 72.5 percent in April.

D’Avino said the number seems to be increasing daily.

“I think children, even though they don’t like the mask and screen, they would prefer the mask and screen to being at home,” she said.

When the schools were opened in April, about 57.7 percent of high school students were on campus, increasing to about 62.6 percent in May.

“We will probably not expect to see this number come up too much,” D’Avino said.

The largest increases at the high school were among freshmen and sophomores. Juniors and were seniors coming back in lesser numbers.

D’Avino and McKay said students took part in activities outside the classroom, like hikes, the spring carnival, the National Honor Society induction ceremony on the football field, and an engineering competition. Students are also eating and learning outdoors.

The optical engineering team are state champions, and a computer-aided design team took second in the state.

“This is really a tribute to Vernon,” McKay said. “The buildings are alive. This is what we were hoping for.”