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UPDATE | All quiet on Poland’s return to school; superintendent calls day ‘fantastic’

By Jess Hardin
Poland students arrive for their first day of school. (Jess Hardin/Mahoning Matters)
Poland students arrive for their first day of school. (Jess Hardin/Mahoning Matters)

POLAND — Three days after a raucous school board meeting featuring heckling anti-mask parents, Poland parents sent their kids back to school with little to no signs of protest.

On Monday night, Poland parents protested the district's mask rule — which only applies to students in kindergarten through sixth grade — threatening to defy it on Thursday morning.

Mahoning Matters also received tips that parents planned to picket this morning.

At 7:45 a.m. at McKinley Elementary School, sleepy kids wore their masks on the school bus and parents walked kids to school while toting cups of coffee.

"Today has been absolutely fantastic," new district superintendent Craig Hockenberry told Mahoning Matters at about 11 a.m. "The parents that were upset, at the end of the day, the kids still showed up with their masks on. The kids were less concerned about it than the adults were."

This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 11:20 AM with the headline "UPDATE | All quiet on Poland’s return to school; superintendent calls day ‘fantastic’."