New year, new rules

As area students return to school Monday, the most noticeable difference for children will be the face of their friends.

In the Iowa Department of Education’s June 30 guidance document, the decision to not require face coverings is “because of the considerable health and safety, legal and training implications for such a policy.” Instead, the decision to require masks was left to individual school districts to decide. For Creston area schools, the decision was made to require masks in the school building and on buses when children cannot be kept six feet apart, which is a guideline recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.

Oliver Ayers, 5, will be entering Ericka Tamerius’s kindergarten class at Creston’s Early Childhood Center Monday. He said he’s most looking forward to the playground, where he gets to “climb up the spider webs.”

Ayers, who wants to be a police officer or firefighter when he’s older, said school is going to be “different” this year and the new rules are to keep him and his friends safe. In addition to masks “because of the virus,” Ayers said hand-washing is really important, too.

“We don’t know if we have germs on our hands,” said Ayers.

Lydia Higgins, 6, who said she’s inspired to become an artist “like Leona (Fry- Schnormeier), will be entering Ann Levine’s first-grade class at St. Malachy this year. She said she’s looking forward to school but not really looking forward to wearing a mask.

“It’s not really fun,” Higgins said.

But she understands its importance as students and staff face the unknown.

Kennedy Gordy, 6, will be entering Alison Waltz first grade class at Creston Elementary. Gordy – a future inventor who hopes to invent things to make other people feel better – isn’t a fan of wearing a mask but not for the same reasons many of her peers aren’t.

“It makes me feel kind of, like, mad, because I just want to see other people’s faces, but I can’t because of the mask,” Gordy said.

Gordy said she’s been practicing wearing masks as she heads to the stores with her mother and sister. She likes her mask because it was made by her mother Lindsay Gordy and liked that she was able to select the fabric for it.

Ellington Stephens Sick, 4, said she has been practicing hand washing and wearing a mask at “Rainbow Ranch,” where she lives, just outside of Creston.

For Stephens Sick, she isn’t sure if she is looking forward to going back to school, but she said she is excited to see her friends and wearing her mask, which makes her “look like a cat.”

“It doesn’t seem to bother her very much,” said her father Wade Stephens Sick. “In fact, she seems to kind of like it.”

Julianne McCutchan, 6, is entering Kathleen Jennette’s first grade class. As she arrives in her mask Monday, McCutchan’s classmates might not realize she’s lost all eight of her front teeth this summer.

McCutchan said she “loves babies so much” and is an aspiring “OB (obstetrician)” but doesn’t care for wearing masks.

“Because sometimes I can’t breathe,” she said.

Huck Kalvig, 6, is “super excited” to join Salina Chesnut’s kindergarten class.

The aspiring DNR officer said he’s “kinda” practicing hand-washing at home. and will arrive to school in a shark-themed mask and matching backpack his Nana gifted him. He said it’s been a long time since he’s seen his school friends and looks most forward to seeing them.

Joslyn Dornack, 6, will be entering Ann Barnett’s first grade class at Creston Elementary. She’s prepared for the mask requirement as she will be donning a mask made by her aunt, which is decorated with unicorns and stars. She also looks forward to studying unicorns upon her return to school.

Dornack said she’s most excited about returning to the playground with her friends. However, she’s not as enthusiastic when it comes to wearing a mask, which she thinks is “kind of weird.”

“Whenever you breathe it kind of smells nasty,” Dornack said.

Dornack said she has been practicing good hygiene habits, though.

“We wash our hands and brush our teeth to ‘Happy Birthday,’” she said. “We sing ‘Happy Birthday’ three times while scrubbing our hands.”