Students in Maine and Vermont are returning to school in earnest after the Labor Day weekend, but school is going to look a lot different for them.
Most Maine schools are offering a hybrid of in-person and at-home instruction. Students and staff have to wear masks. Buses are running more frequently and with fewer students in some places.
"We're all in the same boat. We're all scared. We're all nervous. We're all anxious. We want to see students, but there are so many unknowns," Erin Bouchard, an English teacher at Scarborough High School, told the Portland Press Herald.
Bouchard, who's taking a leave of absence to start the school year because of a lack of child care for her own children, said there will be a learning curve, calling it "one class at a time, one hour at a time."
For some, the first day of school is being delayed. RSU 57 in York County pushed back the start until Sept. 14 after a person associated with the transportation department tested positive for coronavirus.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that the number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the state increased by 12.
The number of people who have tested positive in Maine stands at 4,713 while the number of COVID-19 patients who have died in Maine is 134, the Maine CDC reported.
Local
In Vermont, schools are restarting across the state after the long weekend, many with a mix of in-person and remote learning.
About half of Vermont students were back to school for in-person classes on Tuesday. Students were expected to get their temperature checked before entering schools. They were also required to fill out a coronavirus-related questionnaire.
