CHCCS students, teachers return to in-person instruction for the first time in a year
By Jacob Meredith-Andrews | Mar. 30, 2021On Friday morning, about one hundred students returned to Frank Porter Graham Elementary School to finish out their first week of in-person instruction in a year.
- The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education voted in early March to offer in-person instruction to all students beginning March 22.
- Frank Porter Graham Elementary Principal Karen Galassi-Ferrer said it has been important to think creatively about safety measures, like holding lunch and breakfast outside or placing colorful tape on the ground for students to follow for social distancing.
![Will Vizuete, 44, and Connor LaMontagne, 25, are the bassist and drummer for The Unsustainables, a band brought together by their mutual love for the environment and the traditional sounds of the Jaimaican ’Ska’ genre. Vizuete is an Associate professor in the Environmental Science and Engineering department at the Gillings School of Public Health, while LaMontagne works in the same department as a PhD student. The band is composed of environmental scientists, engineers and even one EPA employee. According to LaMontagne, Ska is the predecessor of reggae. “It’s a cool mix,” LaMontagne said. “We’ll be playing just a regular reggae tune and then Trent will call out dub style and we’ll [make] what he describes as a ‘subtractive art’. It’s not about making a bunch of noise, it’s more about what you sounds you remove and sort of tastefully messing with the arrangement.” Vizuete agrees that the band’s mutual love for this era of music makes the group so amazing. “What’s really hip about it is that we’re all writing new songs,” Vizuete said. “It’s something new and contemporary, because [we’re] writing about stuff in [our] own life, but it’s within this kind of era of sound that we love. And that’s the fun part, trying to recreate that sound.” The Unsustainables create this sound through the use of drums, bass, guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone and conga. They are in the process of trying out a new piano player, according to Vizuete, which would bring the total number of members from seven to eight people. “Just being able to play has really been keeping our sanity,” Vizuete said.](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/dth/7cafc832-b460-45d2-83ab-970325444cf2.sized-1000x1000.jpg?w=1500&ar=4%3A3&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
