When local students hit the road for spring break this past March, few expected that they would not be returning to the classroom for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year. Facing the early stages of the United States’ response to COVID-19, few (if any) likely thought that the impact of the pandemic would reach all the way to the beginning of the 2020-21 academic year.

And yet, that’s where we find ourselves. We’re still struggling to get a handle on this virus while simultaneously trying to manage some fashion of normalcy, which means that everything from academics to student athletics remains in a state of flux.

For many students, the new school year recently began online. You can find pictures of some of those youngsters in this very edition of The Times. For others, class won’t begin until Sept. 8, when students are allowed to start returning for in-person instruction. Others will be taking advantage of both options, attending class through part of the day and continuing their studies online at home. Similarly, fall athletics are expected to ramp up in the coming weeks, with the Arizona Interscholastic Association implementing new safety measures for all sports. (See related story, page 8A.)

But as we’ve learned over the course of these past five months, pretty much everything should be considered tentative at this point. We know the current plan for keeping our kids educated and active, but we must also be ready to accept that any and all plans could change yet again due to COVID-19.

To our local students, parents, teachers, administrators, campus personnel, coaches and everyone else doing their best to roll with the punches, we commend you for your efforts. These are unprecedented times, but we’ll continue to adapt to the changes and get through this as a community.