John Wichterman ’23

THE ROUNDUP

As the school year wraps up, wearing masks and cleaning desks has become normal for students, but what will “normal” look like next year at Brophy?

Questions have arisen as to what the future for AMDG protocols will look like, especially since more and more students have the ability to and are getting vaccinated.

Principal Mr. Bob Ryan explained that AMDG protocols have been constantly changing throughout this entire school year as guidelines change and more studies come out, so changes have been coming in small waves rather than one huge event.

“We are holding out on really making any final decisions for a while because the rate in which things change and the rate in which things have changed makes it almost impossible to predict what the fall is going to look like,” Mr. Ryan stated. 

Mr. Ryan also pointed that no changes would be made over the summer semester due to promises made with parents to maintain continuity with this school year. 

“I have been telling people that we’re going to continue the protocols we’ve got through June and then we can begin next year with some different protocols,” Mr. Ryan said.

Since some summer school classes are entirely in-person, Mr. Ryan stated that it is imperative that we continue to stay as safe and careful as possible since quarantine could cause students to not get the class credit they needed.

Mr. Ryan explained that there are multiple deciding factors when making decisions to change any of the COVID policies, such as COVID cases in Arizona or different strains being discovered, but he mentioned that the impact of the vaccine will be a very large decision-maker.

He explained that sports will follow a similar path, with things at the very least remaining as they are now unless there happens to be a significant event over the course of the summer.

“I think it’ll definitely be interesting to see if anything changes by next year or by the end of this school year, said Luke Olivas ’22. 

“Even if we keep what we have now, I’ll be okay with it because I’m so used to it at this point,” Olivas continued.

Mr. Ryan further mentioned that Brophy actively changes their policies due to a mix of influences, one large influence being the CDC, which just recommended that desks only have to be three feet apart now.

“One thing I hope we can bring back are more desks that are grouped together. I don’t know if it would even be possible because of contact tracing, but there is a lot less interaction when everyone is so spread apart,” said Danny Robaina ’23.

“It’s weird to think of the possibility of not wearing masks sometime next school year if possible, but it’ll be something that a lot of us will look forward to if we are able to,” Robaina concluded.