KALKASKA — Kathy Nichols had her bright smile out bright and early as she greeted dozens of youngsters marching into Birch Street Elementary for their first day of school.

Nichols, a nearly 30-year veteran educator who has spent the past 17 as a special education preschool teacher, held her arms wide open to every child looking for a hug.

“I just love them all,” Nichols said Tuesday morning. “I will never have a child here not feel welcome to start the day.”

Feeling welcome will be vital as students, staff and families enter a third school year marred by a pandemic, one that is back on the rise in the U.S.

Increases in both COVID-19 cases and the transmission rate led to some schools to institute universal masking policies while indoors, a preventative measure recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services along with several county health departments across the state.

Both the Health Department of Northwest Michigan and the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department issued mandates Friday affecting districts in six northern Michigan counties and requiring all schools and educational institutions to adopt a universal masking policy.

Kalkaska County — home to Birch Street Elementary — was not one of the six. The district’s board of education approved strongly recommending masks, but not requiring them to be worn.

“The whole bubble of the pandemic is still hanging there,” said Kalkska Public Schools Superintendent Rick Heitmeyer. “We were led to believe that things were a lot better in June and the state relaxed a lot of stuff. Now they’re ramping back up.”

Heitmeyer said his district will follow medical advice and do all they can to keep students and staff safe and comfortable, keep education in person, and keep everyone’s spirits up.

Having people like Nichols will help with the latter.

“Everything in education is about relationships,” Heitmeyer said. “Knowing everybody and greeting everybody, that’s huge. If we can keep that energy all year, good things are going to happen.”

Those relationships were on display as parents, grandparents and other family members dropped off their little ones. Many gathered by the entrance before the doors were unlocked, waiting to get in.

Some students wore masks, others did not. Neither approach seemed to cause any stir, but several parents expressed gratitude for having the choice to mask or not mask their children.

Shyenne Williams, who works at the middle school as a social worker, watched her 7-year-old daughter, Annabelle Caswell, and her 6-year-old stepson, Paiden Stapleton, head down the hallway. She is happy masks are not required and said she feels more comfortable and confident going into this school year than she did last year.

“It’s not the unknown, right now. Last year, it was,” Williams said. “I’m happy. They’re happy to be back. They were excited this morning, getting their new school clothes on and stuff.”

Kalkaska is one of the few school districts in northern Michigan to open doors before Sept. 6 — Labor Day. Heitmeyer said the district received a waiver from the state to start early and then negotiated with the unions on a start date.

“When you start school on the sixth or seventh, you lose so much flexibility the rest of the year,” Heitmeyer said.

The first-year superintendent said the earlier start means an earlier end. That should help move the district’s capital projects along a little more quickly.

Voters passed a $16.85 million bond proposal from KPS in May. The highlight of the long list of projects is construction of an early childhood care and education center. The building could house the Great Start Readiness Program and Head Start — both free preschool offerings to low-income families — as well as tuition-based early childhood programs. The target opening date is fall 2022.

Other proposed projects include expanding Birch Street Elementary by eight classrooms to house fourth- and fifth-grade students and the addition of a full-size gym; security, athletic and lighting upgrades; replacing the water well at Rapid City School; expanding band facilities at the middle school; new playground equipment; roof repairs; resurfacing the track and athletic field; improved technology infrastructure; furniture replacement; parking lot and sidewalk repairs as well as fence replacements.

Wrapping up the school year on June 3, 2022, will give construction crews an extra 10 days lead time on the work.

“It made a lot of sense,” Heitmeyer said.