Doing our best as schools open in pandemic
School leaders across the area, state and country are making important decisions every day, doing what they think is best for students, families, staff and communities.
As with all decisions made at the local level, each leader must take into consideration the nuances unique to his or her community.
As local leaders, we do not second guess what a neighboring district is doing. Instead, we give grace and empathy to those districts, businesses and families who choose different options than we do, and receive it return.
By pursuing our reopen strategy, we do not suggest or believe we have any better insight than other groups of leaders wrestling with the same underlying challenges. Our decisions and judgments are simply based on our best efforts to sort through the unique circumstances and variables relevant to our schools and our community.
Some folks have asked what are the criteria we use and what are the thresholds that would drive us to switch instructional modes. I only wish it were as simple as a chart and clean objective numbers. We all know there is no limit to the data, advice, recommendations, guidance and best practices available to support a range of viewpoints. It is not a simple question and there are no simple answers.
It reminds me a little of calling a snow day or closing for wind chill. There are multiple sources and forecasts, and various recommendations that must be combined with local response capabilities, situations and conditions. Just because the wind is blowing 30 mph at the Dayton International Airport does not mean our community is experiencing the same conditions.
What is the same throughout our communities, and even our households, is a shared feeling of loss. We are all grieving the loss of what we, as students, families, educators and community members, had before COVID-19. Nothing is the same as it was before this virus became a “normal” part of our day. Even as we hope for a return to “normal,” we know things have changed, maybe some for the better.
We have had time in the last few months to step back and appreciate our families, friends and those who lift us up.
Many parents have reached out during their students’ time away from school to tell us how much they appreciate our talented teachers. We appreciate the continued support of our community and respect the challenges and questions our residents have brought forward. We are working to do what is best for students and need our partners to work with us.
We need our students, families and community members to join us to reach our goal of opening schools and keeping them open.
We must continue to make good choices so students and staff can return to our buildings, so student-athletes can take to their fields of play and our community can return to “normal.”