LOUISVILLE, Ky — On Tuesday morning, classrooms inside Semple Elementary School remained dark for one final day.
Their desks were neatly spaced and numbered, with supplies meticulously stored inside each one. Fresh decorations gleamed in what sunlight was allowed to filter into the rooms that had barely been touched in more than a year.
Some classrooms, however, were bustling with energy.
Sarah Tomlin sat at her table and cut out numbers and letters for her incoming kindergarten class. After teaching higher grades at Semple, she happily took her first assignment teaching the school's youngest minds.
"The nerves always settle in before the first day," she said through a cloth mask.
She had previously met her students and their families during video calls. While learning names and providing assurance to parents can be a steep task, arguably their hardest conversation took place with a school administrator who had to tell them they would not be allowed to walk their children to their first-ever classroom.
"It was hard," Tomlin said. "I think they were surprised and they kind of had to take it in. But, hopefully, they’ll get to know that at Semple we’re really welcoming."
It was one final thing stolen by COVID-19 before schools returned to some normalcy.
Upstairs from Tomlin's room, Clee Hall, a third-grade teacher, hung sports-themed decorations in his classroom.
"There’s a lot of students who have been waiting for the chance to be in third grade to have Mr. Hall for their teacher," he laughed.
Hall will have to wait until Thursday to begin teaching his small class, and there are many safety precautions to keep track of in and outside his room.
"The restroom breaks, oh my goodness," Hall said. "That’s gonna be the time when the kids are gonna be out there. They’re gonna be trying to touch on each other."
Aside from safety, Hall's highest priority will be the happiness of his students, not their proficiency with multiplication.
"Everything is: 'Don’t do this! Don’t do this!'" he said. "I want them to have a little fun too."
His principal, Danielle Randle, agrees.
"Keeping our staff and our students safe – that’s gonna be success," she said in a Semple hallway. "Our students excited about coming back the next day, the next week – that’s how we’ll measure success. Just making sure that everyone is OK. It has been a really, really hard year."
Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio has said multiple times that it will take multiple years for Louisville's students to make up for the quality of education lost during the pandemic.
Academic success will hopefully come with time and effort. On Wednesday, a different kind of success will be achieved.
For the first time in a year, school is in session.