ZACHARY - In-person classes begin Monday, August 17 for all Zachary Community schools.

This comes one week after the Zachary school board decided to delay the school start date due to a report of 19 teachers in COVID-related quarantine. 

"It's time for them to go back, but I'm very nervous about it," Belle Green said.

Green has three sons who attend schools in Zachary and is concerned about them going back to in-person classes even though the schools will follow the COVID-19 guidelines, including mandatory face masks.

"My kids are not going to wear masks all day as they should, so I'm worried about that and worried about what they'll bring home to the older folks," Green said.

Students who will attend class in-person will be on a hybrid schedule, in which students will alternate between in-person school days and using an online learning tool from home to limit any physical contact.  

"I was very, very concerned, especially with the teachers testing positive," Pamela Terrence said.

Like Green, Terrence also has a son who attends a school in Zachary.

Terrence and her husband decided at the last-minute to allow their son to attend classes in-person, instead of online originally.

"At first my husband and I discussed just doing only virtual, but he decided that our son really needed the face to face," Terrence said.

The virus has also left Zachary Community Schools short-handed with bus drivers and school bus monitors.