FCPS first day of school: pandemic edition

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Fayette County Public School students are back in the classroom virtually.

The 2020-2021 school year has began.

You probably didn’t see so many school buses, crowded playgrounds, or other hallmarks of the first day back because over 40,000 students in Lexington started the academic year online.

We visited a Lexington’s family’s home to see what the first day looked like.

Erica Snow is a teacher at Frederick Douglass High School. She also has six children aged Pre-K all the way up to high school.

“We put the kids on the front porch with their Chromebooks in front of them and had them take that first day of school picture,” says Erica Snow.

Not your normal first day of school photo. A pandemic is anything but normal.

“I didn’t have to think about what I was gonna wear,” says high school junior Eliza Snow. “I didn’t have to think about how cute I had to look.”

Snow is virtually teaching from home while her five school-aged kids are virtually learning from home. Can you imagine what that looks like?

“I’ve been planning for months for my teaching side of things so that’s where my energy has really been concentrated especially for the last two weeks so last night was kind of a frantic free for all making sure all the kids had what they needed,” says Snow.

The kids are set up at the dining table with their mom only a few feet away. All wear noise-cancelling headphones.

“I will be working from school a lot of days because the chaos here gets a little loud,” says Snow.

She’ll be able to with her husband working from home able to monitor the kids.

It’s not how the kids wanted school to start.

“I was really excited to start high because I’d be going to high school with my sister and mom,” says high school freshman Andrew Snow. “But then I found out we’d be doing it online and I was really mad about that.”

“One thing that I love about going to school is I can get away from like all my siblings,” says seventh grader Isaac Snow.

But his siblings have instead turned into his classmates.

“We’re doing something that’s never been done before so, ya know, just a little bit of grace,” says Snow.

Grace is what it’ll take to have a great school year even from home.