How One Principal Got Students Back to a Bronx Public School

Last year, 80 percent of students at Public School 5 and half its teachers learned and taught remotely.

Danielle Keane, the principal of Public School 5 in the South Bronx, spent months preparing for Monday morning, the first day of school.

Everything was in place: the pipe and drum band from the Police Department ducked under an orange-and-black balloon arch — the school’s colors — and circled the concrete schoolyard playing a Bruno Mars song. Teachers, wearing matching black T-shirts that read “Let the good times roll,” danced along. Inside, the school building was gleaming, with desks spaced three feet apart and masks for anyone who needed them.

“Now, all we need are the kids,” Ms. Keane said.