By MICHELLE IRWIN

On April 12, all schools in San Diego Unified School District will open their doors for in-person learning for all interested students. We are so very excited to welcome our students back to campus!

Our teachers will simultaneously teach in-person to those students who choose to return and teach on-line to our students who have chosen to wait to return. At Henry, we will be able to offer four days of in-person instruction to all our students who have requested to return. We have approximately 1,250 students who will be returning to campus on April 12.

In order to ensure the highest safety protocols, our classrooms have been prepared to support in-person instruction. We have arranged our student desks to be 6 feet apart, our rooms have PPE equipment such as see-through safety guards, cleansing wipes, disposable masks, two to three air purifiers per classroom, and we will soon receive an HVAC upgrade. We have a specific path of travel for students during passing periods. We also provide voluntary COVID testing by UCSD for all interested students. I firmly believe with these safety precautions our students and faculty will be safe from contracting the COVID virus.

Even though we are doing online learning for a little over a year, several of our students are being acknowledged for their dedication to our community and hard work with their academics.

Abudllahi Muhammed and Zubeyr Muhammed entered a Lions Club speech contest. The speech contest was conducted over Zoom by describing the pros/cons of distance learning. Both students performed very well and won prize money from the Lions Club. Way to go Patriots!

Please remember to visit the Patrick Henry website for up to date information about our school and district www.patrickhenryhs.net.

On behalf of the Patrick Henry High School Faculty, we want to thank you for being our partner in education so we can ensure all students graduate with integrity, purpose, and options.

— Michelle Irwin is principal of Patrick Henry High School.