STAUNTON - David Marino entered the halls of Staunton High School the first week of April with panic in his heart. He was part of one of the small waves of teachers allowed in at a time to clean out classrooms left abandoned almost a month before.

Marino thought it would be mostly sad. Instead, he was filled with fear and paranoia.

"Really, it was overshadowed by COVID-19 and I was paranoid about getting in and out as quickly and safely as possible," he said.

That was April 6.

Each department was assigned to clean out their rooms on a certain day and maintain social distance. According to Marino, the school didn't want people coming in and out whenever they wished and overcrowding the school. Instead, around six to seven teachers at a time came in to clean things out.

Marino's clean-out was a little different. His classroom, where he taught English for the last eight years, will no longer be there in the fall. It's in an old wing of the high school which will be torn down with the Staunton High School renovations.

Marino said it's a mixed bag of feelings. Not only has he been a teacher at Lee High, now Staunton High for 11 years, he was also a 2003 graduate of the school.

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"I have a lot of memories in that building, both from when I was a student and from now as a teacher," he said. "I guess I'm worried that the memories will fade or become obscured when the place they originated in is gone."

Marino remains hopeful for the future, but is still sad to lose out on the final quarter with his students.

"The students are part of the school family, and it felt unnatural to walk out the doors on a Friday the 13th to never see them again without any sort of formal farewell," he said. "Usually I tell the students at the end of the semester how much they meant to me, how much I'm going to miss them, but that opportunity was lost beyond our online communications, so I'm sad for that."

He didn't have time to reflect on the year. The cleanup was rushed.

"There was no time to think about the last erasing of the chalkboard, the last stacking of the materials," he said. "My only focus was to get out before I accidentally breathed in someone's cough. I did not take one last trip down memory lane, that's for sure.

"It definitely sounds dramatic, but I felt like I was tasked with going back into Chernobyl to gather my belongings," Marino added. "Of course, this was earlier in the progress of the virus when we didn't really know how impacted our area was going to be, so my fear was an overreaction at that time."

Others have found it a somber experience as well. A week after Marino cleaned out his classroom, Laura Stump found herself inside Stuarts Draft High School.

Stump, a French teacher at Stuarts Draft High School, entered her room to see lesson materials from March 13 scattered on her desk. That was the last day she and her students were in school. It was like her classroom had been suspended in time.

She said she's been in the school a few times — teachers were able to come in a grab things if they needed. This week, she started completely clearing out her classroom. She also teaches at Stuarts Draft Middle School, but has been told not to come in and clean yet.

This is her 30th year teaching and as a foreign language teacher, she said she has a lot of materials — so, that means a lot of organizing and clean-up.

When she went in Tuesday, she said the school was quiet.

"Eerily so," she said. "I've been in the building before when no one else was there, but it just felt very different today. I know that there was probably an administrator and a secretary in the office, but of course I didn't see either of them. The whole place just felt very still."

Stump said she felt sad, but had accepted this is what she and other teachers have to do. She finds herself worrying about her students; distance learning can only go so far and often the connection she had in teaching them in-person can be lost over the internet.

"I erased the reminder on the board for my French 3 kids to bring their money and permission slips for the field trip to the French restaurant that won't happen," she said. "I threw away a stack of papers that I had graded, but will never be handed back to the kids. I miss my kids."

Normally the end of the year is filled with excitement. This time it's different, Stump said.

"Everything is so uncertain right now. I know that the word 'unprecedented' has been used ad nauseum during all of this, but it fits," she said. "Usually the end of the year is filled with celebrations and anticipation of a relaxing summer vacation. This is different. This is scary for all of us."

Jessie Gilmartin, a first grade teacher at McSwain Elementary School in Staunton, said she's not really sure how to feel about it all. This is her first year back in the classroom after nearly 14 years, so she said she doesn't know any different.

"I think we're all sad to not have the kids," she said. "It's very empty and quiet."

Gilmartin said the teachers are coming in shifts this week. Her day to pack up is Thursday. They are collecting all the students' work and an instructional aide is setting it out for parents to pick it up outside the back of the school.

"The hardest thing is just the emotional component. We're not personally handing the kids stuff to them," she said.

Apart from not being able to properly send off the students, Gilmartin said the overall camaraderie at McSwain has been overwhelming. The teachers have tried to keep the students engaged with different activities like videos of teachers the students can watch.

Cleaning up classrooms for many teachers was like ending a chapter.

Marino remains excited for the new building improvements despite losing his old classroom space. Although, he won't be missing out on looking out one tiny window that faced a brick wall, or sticking a box fan in the window when it was 85 degrees inside in February.

"Classrooms have the mission to change lives, and that room's mission has ended. I hope I did my part to fulfill that role," Marino said.

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You can reach reporter Laura Peters at lpeters@newsleader.com. Follow her @peterslaura.