Impact of the Pandemic on Gorge Schools
Impact of the Pandemic on Gorge Schools
By: Saige Thompson
Originally Published: February 28th, 2021
Of all the aspects of our lives that have changed over the past year of the COVID 19 pandemic, school has experienced perhaps the most change.
Starting in mid March of 2020, most schools in the United States went to some form of remote learning. A year later, in March of 2021, many schools are still there while others have moved to in person or a combination of in person and virtual learning.
Gabrielle DeLeone, the Regional Education Network Coordinator for the Columbia Gorge Educational Service District (ESD) said “School up until now has been a consistent part of students' lives. By taking away that consistency is like taking away the one routine students know. That has been very hard for a lot of students that don't have stability or consistency in their lives.”
As a part of Ms. DeLeone’s role in the ESD, she has been supporting schools in forming their reopening plans. The ESD also supports homeschooled students, migrant students and families. Additionally, the ESD school improvement department supports schools, students, teachers, and administrators in each school.
Ms. DeLeone said that “For the most part, schools are staying online, but many schools are already going back in person. It depends on the size of the school. Smaller schools usually go back sooner.” She stated that “Teachers are struggling a lot right now with student access to technology and student/ family access to wifi and reliable internet.” Some of the unexpected
benefits she has noticed are how fast Google classroom and Zoom responded to teachers’ needs. She also appreciates the flexibility of teachers. Ms. DeLeone wants students to go back to school in person but realizes safety comes first. She really encourages everyone to listen to the safety guidelines so that kids can go back in person sooner.
In this article I interviewed a student and a teacher both from two different schools. Trout Lake School is a K-12 learning environment located in Trout lake, Washington. During the pandemic Trout Lake School was able to continue in person learning just of course with modifications to fit the safety guidelines. Riverbend High School is a community school located in The Dalles, Oregon. Riverbend switched to online learning when Covid started.
Kieran Connolly is a high school language arts and music teacher at Riverbend Community School in The Dalles, Oregon. He has been working in schools since 2004. Mr. Connolly stated that one of the challenges he is experiencing is how hard it has been to get students engaged or interested on Zoom. He shared that it has been very hard and discouraging to start a class and just see a bunch of muted black screens.
Mr. Connolly stated how hard the change has been on homeless students because school was a safe place for them. They were guaranteed two meals a day and shelter when school was in person. However, not everything has been negative, he said “There are many students that have a lot of social anxiety and being in school settings is really stressful for them and working from home and through a screen can benefit them a lot.” Personally, he likes being able to work from home and he has learned a lot of new tools that he plans to use even after the pandemic.
Mr. Connolly used to work as a principal. He said, “It would be really hard for me if I still had my principal hat on to decide to go back to school in person if I wasn't certain my students and teachers would be safe.’’
Timmy Waller is a high school and elementary history and P.E. teacher in Trout Lake, Washington. He has been teaching for 5 years. Mr. Waller said, “I am hugely in favor of being back in school for a few reasons; the first one is that the kids who really struggle at working from home, we aren't able to help as much (online).”
Mr. Waller also feels like they are catching the virus much faster because they are checking students’ temperatures every day. He does not feel that going back to school in person is more dangerous at all. They seat the students six feet apart and everyone wears masks and sanitizes frequently.
One of the things that he doesn't like about school in person is that they are now doing half days and he feels like he isn't able to teach as much as he would like to. He has to figure out how to break the lessons down so that they fit into the new school schedule. An unexpected benefit Mr. Waller is grateful for is that he is getting to spend more time with his family and he has more freetime.
Destiny Powell is a junior at Trout Lake, Washington. Ms. Powell stated that school has changed in many ways since the pandemic. Their temperature gets checked on their way into the building. The chairs are each six feet apart and everything is being disinfected frequently. She prefers going to school in person even with all the changes. She said, “I feel less distracted now than I did when I was doing school from home.”
Bereket Mahn is a junior at Riverbend Community High School in The Dalles. Mr. Mahn shared that he feels more able to keep up in his classes now that he is doing school online because everything is laid out and he can see all of his missing work. He stated he wants to go back to school in person but he understands the risks. However, he said, “I feel a lot more (dis)organized now than I did when I was going to school in person.”
Both Oregon and Washington Schools need to be back to in person learning by April 19th. It has been over a year now since schools have been affected by the pandemic. Approximately 20% of people have been vaccinated. Vaccinations are now starting to be available to teens. As schools and all of us seek to return to some form of normalcy.
