As of the second week of November, Junipero Serra High School has reopened following the hybrid-model. For the 2020-2021 school year, Serra students have been given the option to attend in-person classes. Students also have the choice to stay online if they do not feel safe coming back to campus.

Students have the opportunity to participate in Padre Core Days on Wednesdays. Serra students can go on campus for class and brotherhood activities.

Juniors and seniors have been going back, split into their Blue and Gold Cohorts. The new freshmen class and sophomores have been staying online for a few weeks until the second week of December.

“I think that the school should reopen, simply because if a school is closed, you don’t have school. You just have hundreds of kids separated in their homes, staring at the computers, attempting to study,” said Daniel Ordonez, a sophomore at Serra, in response to Serra’s school reopening.

NDB and Mercy tri-school classes have also adapted to the new way of online learning. Because there can be no intermixing of the schools, tri-school courses will stay online until the beginning of the second semester in January 2021.

“If I’m completely honest, judging from our surroundings, I think it’s kind of a bad idea for Serra to reopen right now. Like, we already have Thanksgiving break coming up and winter break coming up, so my thought process is why not wait till the semester is over, because it’s just such little time. But, I can understand them, wanting to reopen as soon as possible because everybody wants to be back in school,” said NDB junior Ashley Lau, a Tri-School student.

Teachers also have to adapt to teaching a class both in-person and through Zoom.

“Even though it’s happy to meet students in person at school, I personally don’t like the idea of reopening campus this semester. We should have waited for next semester because the reality of engaging students both in the classroom and online is very challenging. I don’t think we are ready. Especially since very little students came for face-to-face learning,” said Mandarin teacher Julie Chen. “As a teacher, I spent tons of time preparing distance learning. Switching to hybrid learning has increased my workload a lot. Additionally, teachers have to take COVID-19 test each month, but students were not asked to do so. I am not comfortable about working in an unsafe workplace. Last but not least, students were just getting used to online learning. Why can’t we wait for it to reopen after the holiday season?”

Although there are different opinions about Serra HS reopening, the administration keeps the safety of the students and staff at the forefront of their minds.