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Reopening: Middle School In San Jose Opens For Summer Classes With Adjustments

SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) -- A middle school in San Jose has become one of the first in the Bay Area to have students on campus for classes since the COVID-19 shelter-in-place began in March.

Summer classes began at Monday at Sunrise Middle School on Julian Street. About 50 students are back at school for the 20-day summer session, with new routines in the age of the coronavirus.

Sunrise Middle School COVID-19
Desks placed apart in a classroom at Sunrise Middle School in San Jose. (CBS)

Among the adjustments being made, students have mandatory temperature checks, handwashing and mask checks. To facilitate social distancing, there are no more than a dozen students per classroom.

Outside one of the buildings, a handwritten sign explained rules for students waiting to get into a classroom, which included lining up six feet apart, along with not hugging, touching or standing near other students.

Sunrise Middle School COVID-19
A sign describing procedures for students to enter a classroom at Sunrise Middle School in San Jose. (CBS)

"The kids seemed happy, the have been bored at home," Principal Teresa Robinson told KPIX 5. "One student termed it as like being in a box, so lonely. They're just happy, it seems kind of like normal again."

Robinson described the summer session as a dress rehearsal for fall, when they expect to get all 270 students back.

Schools across Santa Clara County had been ordered closed since March 13.

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