MOSES LAKE — Frontier Middle School Principal Guinevere Joyce was at the door as students arrived Wednesday morning.

Joyce wished students good morning as they streamed past, distributing masks to kids who forgot theirs. It was the first day of classes at Frontier for the 2021-22 school year, a day Joyce said was a long time coming.

“We have been waiting and preparing for this day for 18 months,” she said.

It was the first day of in-person instruction for all students at Frontier since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Schools statewide were closed for in-person instruction for the last three months of the 2019-20 school year. For the 2020-21 school year, the Moses Lake School District gave parents the choice of sending their kids to school full-time, part-time or online. But for 2021-22, all kids are back in the classroom.

“Everybody is super-excited to have (all students) back on campus,” Joyce said.

Teachers and staff have a year of experience with challenging conditions, but so far it seemed smooth.

“It feels more relaxed,” Joyce said.

Joyce said getting ready for school required a lot of planning, since schools are still subject to mask and social distancing mandates. But the process was easier with lessons learned from last year, she said.

Once kids got inside, staff members directed them where they needed to go. Security officer Scott Strom methodically – and with no nonsense – sent seventh- and eighth-graders into the cafeteria and sixth-graders across the courtyard. But he showed a softer side, too.

“I’ll give you a hug if you need one,” Strom said.