Posted September 9, 2020

Students, teachers and staff of Corpus Christi School in Lansdale returned to school for the start of the fall semester Aug. 31 amid excitement as well as numerous health and safety protocols necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides health and wellness checks to start the day, classrooms accommodated 406 students in person — plus 22 students attending participating virtually from home — in rooms with a maximum of 25 persons each. Desks were spaced for social distancing as much as possible. In some classes, personal plastic screens were perched on desks to safeguard each student in the room. All teachers utilized large, portable, clear screens to speak with students, and virtual students participated through video equipment in each room. (Photos by Matthew Gambino)

  • London Laney, right, speaks with Corpus Christi teacher Amy Herron.

  • Cole Cianciulli, left, walks into school with Mackenzie Rippert.

  • Eleanor Falk comes to Corpus Christi School for the first time on her first day of kindergarten with Principal Maureen Lafferty as Eleanor’s sister Elisabeth follows behind.

  • Declan and Evan Milligan get a kiss goodbye from their mother before they walk into school with Maureen Lafferty, principal (left).

  • Students Wayne and Louis Westring join teacher Lori LeFevre and Principal Maureen Lafferty as the children’s parents wave goodbye.

  • Some students arrived to school by bus.

  • Teachers greet a busload of students for their first day at school.

  • Bridgette Rossi has her temperature taken every day, as is the new norm every day at school, by her fifth grade teacher Libby Gregg.

  • Fifth grader Elizabeth Wichner (front) puts her school supplies in order on her desk.

  • Beneath a statue of Mary, fifth graders get organized for the start of a new school year.

  • Fifth grade teacher Libby Gregg, like all teachers in Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, will use a portable Plexiglas screen (shown), made possible by a collaboration of the Ambassador’s Fund for Catholic Education and Communications Test Design Inc.

  • Eighth grade teacher David Waeltz checks the class roll and takes the standard health and safety precautions before the first day of class begins.

  • Annabel Antonella has her temperature read before class begins with eighth grade teacher Bridget Scheetz.