D21 Welcomes Students in-person Today; All Classes Back in Session

Anson Jones, freshman, Jensen Garrett, sophomore and Hayden Dschaak, freshman, await the start of classes at The Dalles High School this morning, March 29. All students in North Wasco School District 21 were back in school today after a phased-in restart prior to spring break.

Things felt fairly normal around The Dalles High School this morning as traffic backed up at the intersection of Washington and 10th streets and students were chatting and milling about outside the school prior to the start of classes.

Today is the first day that District 21 has had all classes of students back in-person since schools were forced to go to online almost a year ago.

The hope in restarting is to do it as safely as possible to keep COVID-19 cases from minimum to zero as our community continues to push through massive vaccinations in the next several weeks.

Through March 20 health care workers have administered 10,629 vaccines, including first and second doses, in Wasco, Sherman and Gilliam counties - the majority of which were administered in Wasco County, according to a North Central Public Health news release.

There is a total population of 26,682 in Wasco County and another 3,520 in Gilliam and Sherman counties, according to US Census Bureau statistics.