LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Holly Ford stood in the corner of the cafeteria of Greathouse Shryock Elementary School as five students sat and ate lunch.

What You Need To Know

  • Five students were part of a demonstration to show how Kentucky's largest school district plans to feed its students safely the rest of the school year

  • Temperatures will be checked at the door in the morning at Greathouse Shryock Elementary School

  • Hand sanitizer will be just inside the doorway

  • Curbside meal pickups will continue, though on an adjusted schedule

Her daughter — a second-grader at the school — and the four others were part of a Tuesday demonstration to show how Kentucky's largest school district plans to feed its students safely the rest of the school year.

"I'm so glad we're going back," she said smiling during an interview with Spectrum News 1. "I’m ready for her to be in-person learning again."

At Greathouse, temperatures will be checked at the door in the morning. The parade of pupils will then walk in and find hand sanitizer just inside the doorway on a table with bagged breakfasts further along.

Breakfast will be eaten in classrooms, according to Principal Karla Davis. For lunch, the traditional long tables in the cafeteria have been pushed to the side. Old metal desks have been meticulously spaced in marked areas, with arrows directing the flow of foot traffic.

CURBSIDE MEAL SCHEDULE

Because parents can choose whether to send their children back to school or keep them in NTI for the remainder of the school year, curbside meal pickups are to remain operating as well, though on an adjusted schedule.

  • March 16: Curbside meals stop. Families will get six days worth of meals that day.
  • March 17: In-person classes begin across JCPS.
  • March 24: Curbside meals return for one day. Families will get eight days worth of meals that day.
  • Spring break (3/29-4/2): No meal service.
  • April 10: Curbside meals return to a Saturday-only schedule. 56 sites are expected to serve meals.

The cafeteria looks much different, and the water fountains in the halls are covered in trash bags so no one will use them. But one week from Wednesday, the day thousands of parents and students have been looking forward to will finally arrive.

They have been waiting for it an entire year.

"We’ll treat this just like the beginning of the school year," Davis said. "And we’ll establish expectations, we’ll model, we’ll practice a whole lot those first few days, and we’ll have everybody ready."

With a unique spring ahead, Ford doesn't think Louisville's kids should be underestimated.

"I think the kids are more adaptable than the adults are, to be quite honest," she said, laughing. "I think that they are gonna do a better job than anybody gives them credit for."

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