VALENCIA, Calif. — When students enter their classrooms at Valencia Valley Elementary School, they’ll be greeted by smiling faces.

Each desk in one of the colorful first grade classrooms is equipped with a bin of individual essentials, including a container of glue bearing a big, drawn-on smiley face. Of course, the teachers’ smiles will remain covered, but not even a mask can conceal the excitement felt principal Amy Gaudette.

“I hope you see in my eye I’m smiling,” she said, her eyes beaming over above a black mask that bears her name and school mascot.

Guadette and the staff at Valley Elementary School have been working hard to ready the space for students. Signs are everywhere, on the hallway floors and walls, gentle reminders with a positive spin.

“Masks make us stronger,” Gaudette reads from one large display. “Masks are always protecting us.”

Gaudette said it's important to her — not just as a principal but as the parent of a first grader — that the students don’t find the new rules or environment scary or unsettling.

“He is not a huge fan of the computer learning,” said Gaudette of her son. “He’s 7, so it’s not his preferred mode. So we are both excited for him to come back.”

Many families share the sentiment in the Newhall School District. Superintendent Jeff Pelzel explained that he received a huge response when finally able to announce reopening plans.

"I’ll tell you, when I sent out that letter, I mean, it was just like, 'Woot woot!'" said Pelzel. "It was crazy, the great response that I got for those who are ready to come back."

Of course, not every family is ready. Roughly 75% of the families at this school have opted to return to in-person learning, while the rest will continue remotely. Monday morning will see the return of TK and K students, who will then be joined by first and second graders on Wednesday. The remainder of elementary school students return to campus March 1.

Pelzel explained that he considers this a soft launch. The district has been preparing for this since last May, so when the county permitted them to return, they were ready to roll.

“I want our kids to feel settled,” said Pelzel. “I want them to have the opportunity to see their friends in person.”

Those returning will be part of an AM/PM hybrid model with morning students using one side of the two-seat desks, saving the other side for afternoon students. Kids will be in class for two and half hours with a two-hour break between cohorts for cleaning.

“Our wonderful, wonderful custodians have a huge responsibility to make sure that in the two hours between the AM and PM cohorts, all of the rooms and all of the high touch areas are sanitized,” Gaudette said.

“I never thought we’d be a year later just beginning to launch our in-person learning,” said Pelzel.

But in way, he suspects it will make the transition a little easier, as students already understand and practice social distancing.

“We’re in a very different situation,” said Pelzel. “If you had asked me this in August, very different. But right now I feel pretty confident around our kids being able to adapt. And they’re used to it. It’s an expectation wherever they go.”

Gaudette noted that she is amazed at how teachers and families have been able to address students’ academic needs. It’s their social emotional well-being that she thinks will really benefit from schools reopening.

"Schools are the hub for their social experience right now, and I think that’s a piece that our children are really missing," she said.

Gaudette added that she looks forward surrounding her students with smiling faces, and even though most of those smiles will be covered, she hopes they will feel the warm welcome that awaits them.