Hardin County High School students return to 5 days of in-person learning

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- Hardin County High School students are back to five-days of in-person learning, more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

This district said 3,324 students are now doing in-person learning, which is about 77%. The rest opted for virtual learning for the remainder of the semester.

“Students were smiling, teachers were smiling, good interaction between each other," John Hardin High School Principal Mark Wells said Monday. "Just a good all-around vibe all day today."

Central, North Hardin and John Hardin high schools all resumed in-person Monday. Before then, students were on an A-B schedule of which days they would attend in-person.

Elementary and middle school students returned in March.

Extra tables were set up Monday in common areas for students to spread out at lunch. Drinking fountains remained wrapped in plastic.

“I was really excited because I had some friends in the A-group that I didn’t get to see," freshman Isabell Moore said. "And we got in and we got to see them and talk to them, and the classroom was more alive."

Other students are getting ready to graduate but feel they missed out on an important year.

“It went from this very quiet, this very simple classroom, very hard for people to speak up and talk into — it just felt like it had life breathed into it,” senior Travis Field said. “We’re just starting now to have events for seniors, so I was just a little disappointed that it just felt like an in-and-out kind of school day. I didn’t feel like I was a senior at all.”