STUDENTS WELCOMED BACK TO CLASSROOMS
7-12 grade students held their full first day last Wednesday
When Woodland Christain Administrator Matt Diehl woke up at 5 a.m. Wednesday, he was excited. When he arrived on campus, he transitioned into gleeful as months of hard work finally culminated into a return to in-person instruction for the entire campus.
After Yolo County remained in the less restrictive Red Tier 2 for 14 consecutive days, Woodland Christian was allowed to resume in-person instruction.
Following a half-day on Tuesday, the campus welcomed back around 150 new faces from their 7-12 grade students for their full first day Wednesday morning.
Around 40 or so of those students were already on campus participating in Cardinal Learning Pods.
Kindergarten through sixthgrade students have been allowed on campus since Sept. 8 after the school obtained a waiver from the county health department.
“The health department has worked with us for months, and they have been in constant communication with us,” Diehl said. “So we were able to put in place all the health and safety measures that were required, and it’s because of the approval of the state along with the local health departments that we can reopen.”
While the school environment is not quite at the levels of normalcy Diehl would like, the current situation the school is in is
much better than the distance learning alternative, he said.
For all of this to happen, the school had to go through a lot of safety measures.
To enter the campus, everyone has to go through a daily temperature check. Everyone is still required to wear a mask, and social distancing is being exercised in the classrooms. Outdoor tents have also been set up to get the students outside as much as possible to help with the ventilation.
The school also has disinfectant foggers. Every day someone fills the fogger with a cleaning solution and makes sure it’s ready for the custodial teams in the afternoons.
Several shrewd cost-effective moves were made, including gaining possession of giant tubs of cleaning and disinfectant wipes. They also built their own handwashing stations throughout the campus.
“Any good school is run by a team of people, and so
we have a team of workers on our staff who creatively were able to build handwashing stations. We were able to do all of the labor ourselves.”
According to Diehl, the school is prepared to follow these guidelines, “as long as we have to.”
“We are really going to have to hold people accountable,” Diehl said. “We have a teacher to student ratio that makes it possible to have that patience and repeat what the guidelines are. But our community was so ready to come back to school and follow health and safety guidance.”
All the regulations and procedures would mean nothing without a collective effort from everyone, including students. Middle and High school students aren’t necessarily known for their decision making or capacity to follow directions.
“I’m really thankful we have our staff, students, and parents all pulling in the same direction,” Diehl said. “It would be really difficult if there were three different agendas or three different goals. At the same time, we take it very seriously
and know that our responsibility is great.
For Diehl and the rest of the staff, this was the only way. Students have a real need, and exploring every avenue to get their limited population of students and staff back on campus was essential.
“We have a mission statement,” Diehl said. “Essentially, it is to prepare our kids for the future. Families are really happy and are starting to feel a bit more comfortable. I saw so many smiles and high fives today. Students really missed their teachers and their friends.”
After seeing the reactions, it further cemented the fact that this was all worth it.
“Just knowing that getting that personal, relational, and instructional set up for teachers to be able to deliver and students to learn safely and healthily that gets the approval of health department but our staff and families as well is just an incredible feeling,” Diehl said. “We put a lot of work in. We have put every step and protocol in place as we have learned to do since the start of all this.”
Since the start of the
school year, Diehl estimates Woodland Christian’s population has grown by a few dozen students, all from around Yolo County. Diehl suspects those numbers have something to do with the school’s efforts and unique circumstances that allow them an easier route than public schools to reopen in person.
While he appreciates the new families, it’s the ones that have been with the school for years that he is really grateful for.
“If it weren’t for the parents here, it would be extremely difficult,” Diehl said. “They have been with us since the beginning, whether it’s distance-learning or on-site learning. The majority of them would prefer on-site, but they remained loyal.”
Being a smaller private school, Woodland Christian is unique if they were to get an outbreak.
“We are not naive and to think that we are not going to have a positive test because the chances are we might,” said the Director of Operations and Development for Woodland Christian David Hargadon. “We’ll just deal with
that when it comes and follow the quarantine procedures. We are optimistic and think things will farewell for us.”
According to Hargadon, Woodland Christian requires parents to notify them if a student were to test positive. After being notified of positive confirmation, both Woodland Christian and the County health department would simultaneously start contact tracing.
“One of the things we do is making sure that all the kids are seated in the same seat whenever they are in a classroom so that we know who is sitting within that range of that student,” Hargadon said. “From there, we start notifying parents and potential people who were in close contact. All simultaneously with the health department.”
The entire campus will not shut down if a case were to be reported or if the County was moved back up into the Purple Tier. The student and possibly class and teacher would have to quarantine with the health department walking them through every step.
Under the quarantine,
the student or group of students would shift into distance learning. Teachers exposed would go into quarantine as well for the next 14 days.
Diehl estimates that just under 10% of all students have chosen to stay in distance learning. The difference now is that they can join in while the teacher teaches her class in realtime. Teachers have iPads set up broadcasting their lessons through zoom.
“We will remain committed to distance learning,” Diehl said. “If a family says they want to be part of the 10% who want to stay in distance learning, then we are going to continue serving them as well. At least for this school year. We are constantly trying to go back and evaluate our lesson delivery. The feedback we have been getting is really good.”
Diehl and the staff have no idea what the next year and beyond hold. But that’s OK with him for now.
“In our situation, it would be a lack of stewardship and planning if we didn’t try,” Diehl admits. “You have to have optimism. We have a healthy dose of that.”