SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — When students return to Highlands Elementary School in a couple of weeks they will notice changes immediately. From numbers painted on the sidewalk outside of the building to hand sanitizer stations inside the front door, the school has made a lot of changes to prepare for the new school year.
There are directional arrows on the floor in the hallways and signs everywhere to remind children to wear a mask and remain six feet apart.
In the cafeteria, students will have assigned seats and they will all face one way.
Read: Back to school: When do classes resume in Central Florida?
“To add a little extra layer of protection for the students, we actually numbered the tables for the students and color coded them so that when they come in they sit in the same seat every single day and it helps us with contact tracing if there were an outbreak or anything like that,” Principal Robert Navarro said.
Classrooms are still in the process of being set up. In a kindergarten classroom, there will be plexiglass dividers set up on each table.
The group tables in classrooms for grades two through five are gone. They are replaced with spaced-out single desks so that students can remove their masks and concentrate on the subject at hand.
Nearly 50% of the student body will return to Highlands Elementary School for face-to-face instruction.
The school is still waiting for some things to come in, like Plexiglas for the teachers and students.
The school district ordered over 25,000 Plexiglas for all the schools.
See photos inside the school below: