Local schools have adapted quickly to minimize pandemic impacts

With delayed graduations for the class of 2020 and a fall semester filled with masks, social distancing and other restrictions on events, local school districts have faced a year like none other. Looking back, district administrators said despite its challenges, the past several months have taught educators some valuable lessons in education and have brought communities together in very special ways.

After spending the last three months of the 2019-20 school year in a virtual learning environment, school administrators were unsure how the start of school in the fall would go. With the COVID-19 pandemic still causing county-wide event cancellations in the month before school was expected to begin, the schools had to balance the safety of the staff and students with providing students with the in-person education that they knew students needed.

“I think we want to try to give our students as much of a normal of a school year that we can,” said Loyal district administrator Chris Lindner. “We were close to that, the best we could do was five days. I think that (in-person learning) has an impact on student learning, I think that’s a key way for them to learn. Mental health-wise, they need to be near their friends, peers and teachers.”

“In our community and for our students, in-person is the best,” said Granton school principal Amanda Kraus. “So students coming in five days a week is important. When we were shut down last semester it was hard for our students. I’m proud that we have been able to bring them back in school almost every day.”

Each school had a slightly different strategy going in to the first days of school. Block schedules, occasional virtual school days, grouping students in classes and busing arrangements, masks, social distancing and sanitation were all measures taken by the different districts as school began. These measures, the school administrators said, have been very effective so far, allowing each area district to hold in-person school days for a majority of the year.

“I think we really had a good start given the circumstances of the pandemic,” said Greenwood district administrator Todd Felhofer. “I think part of it was changing things a little bit, having to change some of the things done a certain way for a long time. How to have kids in class, and schedule classes. Having the plan we had allowed us to go five consecutive days, which is close to what we would normally do.” There was a cost to having those in-person school days. Each district has had at least five COVID cases to handle since the school year has started, resulting in many students and staff being quarantined at home for a few weeks. This has put a large burden on both teachers and their limited pool of substitutes.

“That has been a difficult challenge for us, since teachers are in and out,” said Felhofer. “That’s tough for the teachers because you don’t want to miss classes. Students also don’t get the same instruction (when the teachers are quarantined). It’s been a big change for us.”

The amount of people out of school at any given time also forced some of the schools to go entirely virtual for a few days at a time.

“I think this year, obviously we’ve had some issues with the number of kids being quarantined at any point in time,” said Lindner. “We’ve had hundreds quarantined at different times, but we kept the doors open and are doing the best that we can. I think that’s a big thing, doing the best we can to protect students and staff while still

“After we come back, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel with vaccinations. I see it slowly going back to more normal. I’m not saying that masks will be removed, but we will have more activities.” -- Loyal District Administrator Chris Lindner keeping students in class five days a week.”

“We had a lot of kids swept up in it,” said Felhofer on the situation in Greenwood. “Most were just close contacts. One person could take out 20. There was quite a number of staff out heading into Thanksgiving time. We decided to maybe take a little break, come back on Dec. 7. Since we’ve been back, only a handful of kids have been out.”

With the changes in quarantine status for teachers and students, advances in technology became a very important part of instruction as the school year went along. Before the pandemic, the administrators said getting more technology in the classroom was a goal they were working toward, but the pandemic forced them to adopt and adapt to the new technology faster than they had anticipated.

“Teachers have taught synchronously and insynchronously,” said Granton district administrator James Kuchta. “They are at their computer and teaching at the same time. Sometimes they are recording lessons for those kids who can’t attend class so they can log on and watch it later. It has added a lot more work for them … Our students are extremely resilient, they are doing amazing at putting up with the technology and learning along with us in addition to learning how to problem-solve and work. The students have put forth an effort and have worked from home and have done quite well.”

The adoption of the new technology has not only been a great benefit during this time, but will continue to be useful in the area districts even after the pandemic is over.

“I think there are some positives, one thing was the 1–to-1 initiative where every kid would have a computer,” said Felhofer. “We were kind of working that way when the pandemic hit, then we needed to go all the way. Now each kid has their own device.

Students have access to better technology, virtual learning, and more staff know how to use this technology as a tool to expand a lesson and deepen student learning.”

Looking ahead to their return at the start of January, the school administrators said there are a few things they hope will be changing for the better. With news of a vaccine on the way, they said their hope is to begin opening up the school to some more normal activities, both with the community and between students.

“After we come back, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel with vaccinations,” said Lindner. “I see it slowly going back to more normal. I’m not saying that masks will be removed, but we will have more activities. We haven’t been able to have a lot of extra curricular stuff, I see that opening up a little bit more … We would also like to get parents back in, the community back in. Our school buildings are a key part in our small community, we would like for them to be able to come in here.”