Richard Salazar and Elise Baughman practice an appropriate more than six feet of social distancing as they await their appointment time of 11 a.m. to come into the campus today. Prior to the city’s decision to issue a stay at home order for all citizens effective at midnight, teachers could gain access to the building on Tuesday by signing up for an appointment window on Monday. Five teachers were allowed in the building at a time. With today’s order banning all but essential work, teachers or anyone else will likely not be allowed in the building until  April 13.

Talk about your mixed messages. One door window at the main entrance lets people know information about coronavirus while telling them that campus is closed on March 13 and the following week but is otherwise a safe, supportive and inclusive campus.

Librarian Jane Farmer came to Mac at 10:30 a.m. to check on the plants in the library. After a little hydration and some positioning under the nurturing window light, she felt better about her green friends staying at Mac a little while longer. Farmer was long gone before those inside the building learned that the stay-at-home order was going to prohibit future campus visits until April 13.

As a bonus for her trip, librarian Jane Farmer was able to harvest two perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes from her perfectly healthy tomato plant in the library.

Custodian Kenneth Sterling disinfects a water fountain as part of today’s schools wide deep clean. He told MacJournalism that the custodians were on half day today. Just before his shift ended, he received word that the city had passed a stay at home order that will prevent the custodians from returning to campus until April 13 at the earliest.

Custodian Kenneth Sterling acquiesces to a photographer’s request that he pose for a portrait. The photographer tells him that he believes that seeing a picture of Sterling on the MacJournalism Instagram account will ease students’ minds about the uncertainty of the school year and disruption caused by COVID-19. The next statement Sterling made confirmed why the photographer feels this way. “It’s easy for me to smile for you because you are my friend,” he said.

Under the pre-COVID calendar, today would have been the first B day after spring break. But in the wake of COVID-19, the only Knights in the building today were these two silent, hollow sentinels in the main office and their larger brother in the main hallway.

Teacher Richard Salazar leaves campus with the stash of Ramen noodles and orange juice that he makes available for his students to eat under normal circumstances. Now that spring break has been extended two more weeks and classes are likely to resume online only, he decided to retrieve the food to prevent it from falling into four-legged control. It was a good thing he made the trip to retrieve the food today. Just after he left, school officials received word the the city had announced a stay at home order that will go into effect at midnight. The order will prevent people from leaving their residences except for essential work. Prior to the order, teachers were able to come to campus today, five at a time if they had signed up for a 30-minute time slot the day before.

Two Austin ISD workers painted the walls in Mr. Carcione’s classroom late this morning. They were able to work today, but they won’t be able to reporter for more painting tomorrow. That’s because the city of Austin has issued a stay-at-home order preventing all non-essential work and activities. The order will be in effect until at least April 13.

As he pours paint for the walls in Mr. Carcione’s classroom late this morning, an Austin ISD painter wears an accurate shirt for today. The shirt won’t apply after midnight, however, because that’s when the mayor’s stay-at-home order will go into effect, preventing non-essential work and activities until April 13.

The college pennants outside the Gear-Up lab hang in an empty hallway on Tuesday as if they are markers for where the seniors will be when they next attend traditional classes.

Susan Ashton and her son walk the hallway to her math classroom late this morning. Ashton brought her son with her in order help her bring home school supplies so she can work from home to conduct online classes. Ashton said she brought home an office chair, a printer and a document camera. While she was on campus, school officials received word of the city of Austin’s stay at home order which prevent citizens from leaving their homes for non-essential activities beginning at midnight tonight. Prior to the order, teachers were able to come to campus today, five at a time if they had signed up for a 30-minute time slot the day before.

Forensics teacher Elise Baughman heads to the front exit of the main building late this morning after retrieving the resources to film a lab demonstration about how to remove ink from checks and other documents. Baughman said she would have preferred to have her students do the lab themselves but that a film demonstration would be better than just having them read about it. Later in the day, she posted a note to her Twitter account saying how much she has missed her students during the extended spring break. It was a good thing she made the trip to get her materials today. Just after she left, school officials received word the the city had announced a stay at home order that will go into effect at midnight. The order will prevent people from leaving their residences except for essential work. Prior to the order, teachers were able to come to campus today, five at a time if they had signed up for a 30-minute time slot the day before.

Head custodian Daniel Sena informs his custodial staff that he has just received word that the city of Austin has issued a stay at home order that will go into effect at midnight tonight. The order, he told them, means that they are not to report to work tomorrow and are not to return to work until April 13 at the earliest.

Head custodian Daniel Sena thanks his fellow custodians for their hard work and wishes them well until they are able to return to campus. Because of the mayor’s order to stay at home, the custodians will not report to work until April 13 at the earliest. The Austin ISD board of Trustees past a resolution on March 16 that authorized the the full and part time employees be paid on cancelled school and work days.