Dear Readers of The Lowell,

On March 5, The Lowell posted about the midday shutdown of the school after a student’s parent contracted the coronavirus. Since then, we have aimed to cover the pandemic and, specifically, capture the experiences of our community during these times. We have reported on everything from how college sports and recruiting has been impacted by the pandemic, to SFUSD’s efforts to provide students with laptops and Wifi hotspots, to how various extracurriculars have adapted to classes on Zoom.

In the cover article of this magazine, we turn our attention to the debate over returning to school. “Plugged in but disconnected: The struggle to learn and reopen” by Zoe Simotas provides insight into the impact that continued distance learning is having on SFUSD students and teachers, as well as how the district is balancing the need to return to in-person instruction with the need to ensure student and staff safety. The path to reopening is a thorny one, and this article aims to provide a guide to how it might best be negotiated.

Editors-in-Chief,

Joelle Chien, Io Gilman, Anita Liu