Thursday, the Vicksburg Warren School District took a decisive first step in giving back our community an amazing piece of normalcy, even if it does come with a bit of hesitation.

In the emphatic announcements that schools will open for in-person education as scheduled on Aug. 7, they stood out and stood up as the leaders this community has come to depend upon.

While the details of the reopen plan will not be unveiled until next week, simply knowing that schools will reopen is tremendously good news to many parents.

Over the past few weeks, school officials have said they have had countless meetings and considered feedback from thousands of individuals in the community — some opposed to schools reopening and others who said they did not yet feel comfortable for their children to return to a classroom setting.

Those opinions and thoughts were considered, appreciated and will undoubtedly be built into the district’s reopening plan when it is officially announced.

Already, Superintendent Chad Shealy said such a plan would be a “hybrid,” giving parents and students who choose not to return to the classroom just yet a virtual-learning option.

That is where we again congratulate and thank the leaders of the Vicksburg Warren School District of today and of yesterday for their vision and their investment in individual student technology that not only allowed the district to almost seamlessly switch to distance learning in the spring when schools were shuttered but also allowed them to build a system that allows children to learn from home if needed moving forward.

As Shealy said Thursday, not every district has that option. We do.

As Trustee Sally Bullard said so eloquently Thursday, “There are kids who need us and parents who need us.” More so than that, there is an overall community who needs this, if not for the psychological boost knowing our educational system is returning.”

Thursday’s announcement was a great step forward and a great step toward returning to normal.