Central High School is Starting Late this Year

Rose Cadden
3 min readMar 5, 2021

First Covid-19 and now flooding and a broken air conditioning unit, the students of Central High School continue to hold on. Central High School in St. Joseph, Missouri is starting later than expected this year because of flooding issues and a broken air conditioning unit in the building. St. Joseph Missouri’s News Press Now explains a bit more about the maintenance problems here:

Until the school is able to reopen again, all of the classes are taking place online. “It is not how I expected my senior year to go,” explained senior Clayton Mikesch. “It’s not all that bad though because we go until 12:30 in the afternoon and then have the rest of the day to do whatever we want.”

Senior Clayton Mikesch working on homework online

Getting used to online classes and starting the semester late has required a lot of adjustment for everyone involved. Becky Jones, who is a parent of one of Central High School’s seniors, has voiced her complaints about the ways in which these restrictions and delays have been affecting her child. “I thought it was handled inappropriately,” stated Jones. “I think that they should have spaced those teachers out and the kids for a couple times a week because now students are a month behind in those dual credit classes from what the other classes are.” While this situation has been rather stressful, the positive attitude shown by students has been uplifting to witness. The upset over having to be isolated from friends and faculty has been something that started last year with the pandemic, and has now carried over into this new year with the maintenance problems. With everything going on, however, the students continue to try and look at the bright side of it all. “It has definitely been difficult for me,” explained senior Alli Jones. “It has been hard for me to stay motivated at home, but I think that it has also been nice. It definitely has its own benefits. We get done earlier and we have more free time and time to work.”

One of Central High School’s empty parking lots during the maintenance work

Making sure that they keep a positive outlook has been a form of motivation for many of the students of Central High School. As the current senior class begins their final year at Central High School, they continue to keep their heads up high in the face of the many challenges that have come their way the past couple of years. As the school begins to take care of their maintenance problems and a vaccine is being talked about for Covid, the hope that things may be able to return to normal is something that many students, faculty and family members are clinging to. Dealing with Covid-19 while all of this is going on is just one more obstacle on top of everything else that the school and students must take into consideration. Below is a link and video to CDC guidelines for school safety during the pandemic for a better idea of how this situation is being handled at Central, while also keeping in mind their maintenance problems on top of everything:

While the inspiration shown by the seniors has been wonderful to watch, it would be great to see them get a break before their high school career ends. For more information on Central High School related stories, go to:

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