ST. LOUIS — Monday, Nov. 28, is a big day for students at the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience.
Students will return to the classroom for the first time after the deadly school shooting last month.
Collegiate shares a building with Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, where a student and a teacher were killed inside on Oct. 24.
Both high schools have been virtual for the past several weeks.
While students at CVPA will remain online for the time being, the halls and classrooms at Collegiate will be full again.
George Sells, St. Louis Public Schools Communications and Marketing Director said Monday is all about making students and staff as comfortable as possible.
"As a district, it's our job to make sure that they've got everything that they need to be able to handle it," he said.
On a cloudy and chilly Sunday, the parking lot at Collegiate School for Medicine and Bioscience in South St. Louis is empty, but come Monday cars will fill the lot once again.
Sells said the district felt like the timing was right.
"We really feel like this has been the right timing based on conversations with them, and our hope is that everybody is going to be as comfortable as possible, and take this next very big step," he said.
That big step is students and staff walking into the school doors.
Sells said it's hard to say how everyone is feeling going into tomorrow.
"I'm sure every student will be going through something a little bit different. Every teacher, every member of the staff, the principal; certainly, everybody's going to kind of handle this in their own way," he said.
Two main factors led to the decision to learn in person again, according to Sells.
First, the principal sent out a survey and asked students and staff about how they felt. Secondly, the district wanted to make sure the building was in the right condition.
According to Sells, based on the survey, many people were ready to jump back into learning and teaching in person again.
"The majority of the kids are ready to be back, they're ready to come back and try to move forward. You'll never put something like this behind you completely, but you can try to take those steps forward," he said.
Part of moving forward involves mental health resources, which the district has on hand.
That includes, according to Sells, counselors and an assigned therapist to the building through the end of the school year.
"A lot of what it is going to be also is just going to be everybody giving some space to one another, and it's going to be understanding that one student feels a little differently than another one does, or they might need a little more room or a little more time," he said.
While the healing process continues, Sell said, everyone throughout the district is thankful for the community's unwavering support.
"It has been one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, and it is something it just gives me chills to think about it, and everybody in the district feels the same way. Nobody is lost on the way the St. Louis Community has wrapped their arms around these students, these schools in this district, and it's something we'll never forget," he said.
5 On Your Side asked Sells about any added security or police presence and he said they want to make the building as safe as possible.
"We want them to be comfortable, we want them to be at ease because they can't get on with the business of learning, they can't start to move forward from this if they're not in a comfortable, safe space, and we're going to do everything we possibly can to make sure they feel they're in a safe space and that's from students all the way up to the principal," he said.
Collegiate students can also remain virtual for the rest of the school year, if they are not comfortable being in person, according to Sells.
District leaders hope that students and staff at CVPA will be able to return at the beginning of next semester.
Sells said that is all based on building repairs and how school students and faculty are feeling.