An Unprecedented Start to a School Year

     Covid can go away! I know it's not, but, sheesh! When you've been teaching as long as I have, you tend to think you've seen and experienced it all. Boy was I wrong!  Many of my followers know that I served on the State Department of Education's "Navigating Change" back-to-school implementation committee and the school district's reopening committee. The State Department of Education put out a very thorough guideline packet of information. School district and counties were then tasked with using those guidelines to formulate a plan for their particular county and districts within that county. Our county devised a "Gating Criteria" which includes different levels of delivering instruction, based on the county's positive testing rate.

     School was "supposed" to start August 12th.  That week, teachers came to their buildings to learn of the district's plan for reopening, some other professional development, and to plan for what each teacher would need for their classrooms to enhance social distancing.  Those items were then ordered and a start date of September 3rd was given.

     The school year started in "The Green Zone." Full class sizes, full school day, masks being worn when social distancing could not be maintained.  Within the first two weeks, we were in "The Yellow Zone." The Yellow Zone is class sizes under 15 students. Masks. Students being released at 1:10.  Guess who had the only class over 18?  The decision was made to move three of my students to the PreK-3 class. We did this by the birthdays closest to the August 31st cut-off date.  Two weeks later, we were in "The Orange Zone," which says, class sizes of 10, masks at all times,  students leaving at 1:10, no mixing of classrooms or grade levels on the playground. At this point, the determination was made to move four more of my students to the PreK-3 class, which is now a mixed class of 3s and young 4s, putting both classes at 13 students. Because our numbers are so low throughout our building, we were able to keep students at school for the full day, which is a huge benefit to our students.   As I write this, last week we were Yellow, but will be Orange this next week.

     I don't think that anyone dreamed that we would get to Orange as quickly as we did.  At a couple of points, it felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants, which is true for school across the country.  My little people and their families have been amazingly flexible and understanding as we navigate "Ridiculous Covid."  I feel like, after 18 school days of craziness, learning routines and procedures, not knowing who was going to be in which class, we can now move forward with the reality that is this school year and with flexibility, perseverance, and grace.  Grace, first and foremost, with our kids, then their families, our colleagues, and our administration.  With grace, compassion, and understanding, we can get through our new reality of what the school year will look like.