Ellie West

While every new student has been affected by COVID-19 restrictions, for some, COVID-19 caused their school transition. Junior Ellie West made an impromptu plan in July to transfer from Oakville High School.

“[Moving schools] was definitely COVID-19 related; I wanted to stay virtual [and] Oakville wasn’t offering my classes online and that was a big thing for my family,” West said. 

Oakville had two campuses set up. Their online campus was entirely separate from the regular campus, which was also virtual at the time. There was a program with a finite list of classes called “Melville at Home,” for all the kids who were going to stay virtual the whole year.

“There were almost no AP classes that were offered online, so that was kind of a problem for me. They were offering French 1, French 2 and French 4, but not French 3. It was all totally bizarre,” West said. “There was not a math class that was in my honors track; I had already taken all of the math classes offered. So, in order for me to take my regular classes I would have had to go to the ‘other’ campus, but those kids could be sent back in-person, whenever, which was not an option. So my mom moved me to West,” West said. 

West’s grandmother, who is diabetic and has other underlying health issues, moved in with her family about a month into isolation. Due to her being at high risk, West is still quarantining strictly.

“[Quarantine has] definitely been a challenge. We haven’t really seen anybody,” West said. “I’m a horseback rider, [so] we do go to the barn sometimes, but we’re all outside we’re all really far apart because we’re on horses, [so] you cannot get that close. But that’s it.”