TPS Welcomes Students Back To In-Person Class With COVID Precautions

Tulsa Public Schools reopened buildings Tuesday to its students, some back in the classroom for the first time in 11 months.

At Mayo Demonstration School, Oti-Lisa Brown was dropping off her 5th grader.

"I'm excited. I know everybody is worried about COVID, but my children do best going to school in person,” Brown said.

At Mayo, students in the 4th and 5th grades restarted school, while the district has a staggered plan to introduce all students back into classrooms by Thursday.

At Mayo, teachers wearing masks lined up in the sidewalk to greet students who for the most part they've only seen online.

"It was exciting," said parent Karla Eubanks. "They're in school. They're so excited to see friends and teachers and everybody."

TPS has an undetermined number of students remaining in distance learning, but assigned to their regular teacher in the building, and some students in a separate, all virtual academy.

Mayo parent Shannon Land said her student struggled with online learning at first.

"Now we've gotten into the flow of it, and this was a more stressful day, getting things back together and getting back to that normal," Land said.