First day back for Millard Public School students

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Students with Millard Public Schools head back to the classroom today.

A lot of today’s first day of school traditions looked like what we are used to, kids ready with their backpacks and parents getting in those last-minute hugs and pictures. But, one thing varied from family to family, whether or not their students were wearing a mask.

For Rachelle Daigle and Derek Watson’s daughter Addison, it’s her first day of second grade with Mrs. Gonzales.

“She’s very excited, she picked out her outfit got all ready, went shopping yesterday,” Daigle said.

“She said she wanted to dress fancy this year,” Watson added.

For the new school year, Daigle and Watson decided to forgo masks for their daughter.

“I’ll keep it brief...but I’m happy there are no masks right now,” Daigle said.

The crowd of families waiting in front of Morton Elementary school to start was fairly evenly split, some masked and others not.

One family who didn’t want to speak on camera said their child would be wearing a mask because of the rise in COVID cases and the severity of the Delta variant.

Daigle and Watson said they feel their daughter is safe without.

“Absolutely, yeah,” Daigle said. “Definitely,” Watson added.

The school board discussed requiring masks for some students at Monday night’s long board meeting but didn’t make a decision.

The Millard School Board is expected to meet again on September 7th and look at data surrounding COVID cases in school and revisit the mask policy.

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