As students, we tend to feel nervous before the first day of school, apparently, teachers and principals are not immune to this anxiety. Kol BT talked to our high school principal Dr. Koplon to see how she is feeling surrounding the new school year. 

What are some of your feelings as the new school year starts? 

This year, I feel like there is a much lighter mood than last year at this time. Everyone is a  bit more relaxed. COVID-19 is definitely still an issue and we are still following protocols and being super careful but we know we can do this. Last year, there was a lot of anxiety over how it was going to all play out. So, it is really exciting to be back to a more normal-feeling year. Knowing that we can have an all-school assembly together, we can plan for Shabbatons and trips is just really exciting.  

Do you feel like there is some pressure on this year because so many things have been canceled during the past two school years? 

Definitely. For many of our students, our twelfth graders and our eleventh graders, they’ve already had a year and a quarter of school that has been totally wiped clean for them. So, we want to bring all of that back while we still can. Yet at the same time, we don’t want to take away from the academic program which is obviously the most important thing, second to your health. 

Does the administration ever worry about announcing things too early in fear of events being canceled due to COVID-19? 

I think that this happened with the Hershey Park trip. We have been talking about the Hershey Park Trip since school let out in June but we didn’t put it on any official calendars or anything because we were waiting to see if we were going to be able to put everyone on busses and go. The nice thing about Hershey Park is that it’s outdoors and the only real issue is the bussing. But we had to wait and see because we don’t like to disappoint teenagers with promises that we can’t keep. We are being a little cautious, but having things to look forward to is important also. For the Seniors, we are planning the Senior trip to Israel. We are planning for the full itinerary that we would normally do. We may have to pull back on that, we don’t know. But you deserve to have something to look forward to.

What are some things you are excited for this year? 

One thing I am very excited for is the fact that we brought back GWAP and SWAP. I think that that was really missing last year. I love the arts and I love hearing music and seeing people painting, doing performing arts, and creative arts. But also, giving people the opportunity to have in school time for things like newspaper and yearbook, all of those things that we have carved out time for with SWAP. It also allows students to have more variation in their schedules. You are not going from one class to another where you have to take out your pencil and notebook to take notes. Sometimes you are in a science lab, you can paint, you can take notes, you can take a test. It gives more variety to the day which makes it a lot more fun.