Schools: Lessons learned that could continue after the pandemic
In normal times, March in Michigan is a time of optimism.
Winter’s grip on the state is weakening, the days are getting longer, and its residents start to slowly emerge from their darkened caves.
But March 2020 was much different. The COVID-19 virus began hitting the Mitten State with a force and impacted our lives in a way that will never be forgotten. Among the segment hardest hit was the school community.
When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer closed all schools March 16, 2020 to slow the spread of the coronavirus,
the optimism of spring was buried under a blanket of uncertainty.
Macomb County superintendents met in an emergency session with the Macomb Intermediate School District at midnight on March 12, the night Whitmer’s order came down. That administrative group worked through the weekend, scrambling to decide what to do next.
Students were forced into their homes full time and school districts were left to come up with competent online, remote instruction on the fly. Macomb County students went on an unexpected three-week vacation and then a full week of spring break. When students came back, they were met with an imperfect virtual format that made learning difficult for many students.
By the fall opening of the 2020-21 school year, school districts had ironed out many of the flaws of the remote, virtual system, and most students had been supplied with school-provided laptops or tablets or laptops. Different districts had a variety of learning platforms — from full face-toface instruction, to full virtual instruction, and a hybrid model, combining both face to face and virtual.
“The rest is really a success story with administrators and teachers stepping up,” MISD Superintendent Michael DeVault said. “It was all hands on deck. I give a lot of credit to the local districts and educators who carried the ball.”
For most school staff and students, the situation has been less than ideal. And no one disputes that face-to-face learning is the best model for student development. But while many procedures and protocols implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually go away, some of them may endure well past the pandemic.
The Macomb Daily reached out to a cross-section of school administrators in the county, as well as state Board of Education member Judy Pritchett, who formerly worked for the MISD, regarding what procedures may endure going into the 2021-22 school year and beyond.
Increased attention to overall building cleanliness and increased use of technology were common themes. We also asked if, thanks to the increase in available technology, remote instruction will continue to be offered and if snow days were a thing of the past. Here are some of their thoughts.
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Pritchett, a member of the state Board of Education since 2018, is a former chief academic officer for the MISD.
“That’s a good question. One thing that comes to mind, for many districts, is the whole internal structure of ventilation and new filters. Districts and businesses are investing in high-quality filters that are better than those that have been used in the past,” she said.
Pritchett suspects preventive measures such as masks and social distancing won’t remain forever, but that all of us will practice better hygiene habits moving forward.
“All of us in the near future and possibly beyond will be more cognizant of proximity when students and staff get ill,” she said. “Will people stop and think about whether to keep child at home when they think they are ill? These are behavioral issues. Good hygiene, hand washing, reminding individuals to wash their hands — anything to remain as healthy as possible. Regarding the cleanliness of buildings, new disinfectants that will continue to used because they’ve proven to be more effective. It’s all part of better maintenance of buildings and grounds.”
“Students are resilient,” Pritchett added. “They will carry some of these behaviors forward without having to be reminded, such as covering their mouth when coughing.”
Will remote learning remain in effect? “The jury is still out. Most of research shows remote learning has not been as affective. On the other hand, kids with physical issues who can’t get to school, for them, remote learning can continue. Schools have been online schools for more than 10 years and students have been home schooled. Online learning is just more widespread now.”
Are snow days a thing of the past? “I think we’ll still have them. I’m not sure what your attendance would be (if school was conducted remotely instead of having a school day). Do we have the technology? Yes, we’ve proved that. But remote areas will have to drive to McDonalds to get Wifi. That’s the issue until we can guarantee every student has a device and has connectivity.”
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Eric Edoff, superintendent of the L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, the largest school district in Macomb County to begin the school year with in-person instruction.
“Measures to protect students and staff will go away slowly, not end all of a sudden,” Edoff said. “Cohorts of kids, distancing of kids, masks could continue into the near future. To say it will stop on some day all at once is incorrect. Some of cleaning procedures will continue as well.”
“The lasting effect is addressing the learning needs of students as we come out of this,” Edoff added. “Kids learn at different rates. We will need to continue focusing on the social, emotional and learning needs of our kids. We will offer more at the high school level in terms of more credit recovery options, summer options, and things after school. We will have additional staff to make sure kids are catching up in their learning.”
Will remote learning remain in effect? Edoff said his district will need to determine how much interest will remain in virtual instruction, and, if so, how can it be improved for next year. Inperson instruction in L’Anse Creuse is at about 85% currently, and he expects that number will increase by the end of the year. So he expects the virtual learning population will be small and that concurrent teaching (teachers instructing in person and online at the same time) is a possibility.
Are snow days a thing of the past? “Obviously, that’s a negotiated piece,” Edoff said. “I see snow days continuing.”
Edoff said a single snow day could have normal protocol. But if a school district has multiple consecutive days off, due to large amounts of accumulation or bitter temperatures, Edoff said the district could easily use remote technology for teachers to communicate with students and do everything from conducting a full class day to providing assignments to work on during the break.
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Mark Blaszkowski, superintendent of Roseville Community Schools, which started the year remotely and now offers full, five days per week face-to-face instruction.
“The hygiene practices we’ve developed have been helpful for all health concerns — hand sanitizers, washing hands, cleaning the high-touch areas. Even if there wasn’t COVID, these practices would be beneficial for the flu,” Blaszkowski said.
“We learned a lot about technology, how to better enhance instruction with learning management systems. Students have better access to materials and resources, and we’ve developed better communication with parents. We have had more communication with parents than (we) would in a normal situation,” he said. “There has been a lot more responsibility put on parents. I’d love to keep working with parents as a team to educate and develop their child.”
Blaszkowski said the increased use of technology such as Microsoft Teams software has allowed teachers to work together as teams across other school buildings sharing ideas and developing virtual parent-teacher conferences, something other school districts are doing as well.
“There are some good things that have occurred that we have learned through the pandemic. And it’s amazing how are teachers have adapted. The Teams software is totally different from when we first received it, which has make it better for us,” he said.
Like many other districts, Roseville also uses Schoology software. Blaszkowski said teachers are working with other teachers to use technology and become better instructors. Staff has also created short video instructional clips that are compiled in a library for other teachers to use as a resource.
Will remote learning remain in effect? “There will be a virtual academy next year, but it won’t look the same. We will return to more faceto-face instruction,” he said.
Blaszkowski added the virtual academy will be less personable and may need to be more flexible on times offered. “As we all know, online is not best environment in which to learn,” he added.
Are snow days a thing of the past? “I’m not to commit that will never be a snow day. If widespread power outage, for example, that would be a problem. So I can’t say snow days will never be there,” the superintendent said.
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Robert Monroe, interim superintendent of Utica Community Schools, which started out remotely and next week will expand to four days in person for secondary schools.
“In general, the pandemic has provided an opportunity for our district to be agile in the face of change and develop sustainable plans. Whether things have been up or down, our community has demonstrated resilience that has met needs of our students,” Monroe, whose district is Macomb County’s largest and second-largest biggest in the state with about 27,000 students, said. “We’ve developed sustainable plans that we can draw on immediately that we can move and transition to seamlessly to provide quality instruction for our students.”
To make the transition to remote instruction, Monroe said the district deployed 27,000 electronic devices, from laptops to iPads and tablets. And those devices will be part of the district’s toolbox moving forward, with a variety of apps and resources based upon grade level and areas taught. The superintendent said that gives students access to their curriculum 24-7, giving them a leg up on access to their learning platforms at all times.
Will remote learning remain in effect? Monroe said the UCS virtual academy had about 5,000 students this year.
“Moving forward, we need to make that available,” he said. “We need to be developing applications to make sure if there is interest, we would be able to provide it. If there is interest, we will do our best to provide it. Our size and scale allow us to provide quality academic programing in the virtual setting.”
Are snow days a thing of the past? “There are logistical and a variety of other factors, so I think we still have to consider the element of snow days in the future,” Monroe said. “Laptops could be left in lockers at school. There could be problems accessing the internet. We could manage snow days better, but I don’t think we can rule them out.”
Monroe added the district will provide multiple options during the summer at different times to offer credit recovery and enrichment camps. He said the district will want to broaden its menu, post pandemic and moving forward. Physical and mental health and safety of students will remain the top priority.
“One of things we’ve learned and will not change, are the good hygiene practices that are critical moving forward for the years to come,” Monroe said. “The wellness resources, resources for social and emotional learning and resources for parents. We want to make sure when teachers and students come to school they are healthy in a variety of ways, and we will continue to focus on that.
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Barbara Van Sweeden, superintendent of Clintondale Community Schools, the 12th largest public school district in Macomb County with about 2,700 students.”It’s been a very challenging situation with a lot of heartache,” Van Sweeden said. “But there are also things beginning to emerge that we will continue into the next school year.”
Van Sweeden identified four areas that will endure the pandemic, led by the increased use of technology.
“Where we were last March is very different than where we are today,” the superintendent said. “We’ve gotten very savvy with our use of technology to support our teaching and learning with the various hardware and software.”
Van Sweeden said there has also been an increased use of personalizing learning for adults and students. She said the district has become more proficient at determining what its needs are both for adult learners (staff) and students. And she said the district is looking at ways to coach its staff and students to help educators get better at teaching using highimpact strategies. Clintondale has already been using the Macomb Intermediate School District and industry experts to fine tune instructional strategies, but she said it’s time for the district to up its game.
“We have to get better at our craft,” she said. “We have to figure out what we can we do to help students understand and synthesize the information they need in the classroom.”
Van Sweeden also said the district needs to focus more on the depth of its curriculum rather than its breath.
“Right now, we’re a mile wide and an inch deep. We need to identify the most important standards that we need to teach,” she said. “Rather than teach everything to students, we need to focus on the most important power standards. That’s less fragmentation of teaching and learning, and more focus on a standard that needs to be taught.”
••• MISDSuperintendent DeVault is “very optimistic” there will be some testing of students receiving vaccinations. In addition, Alesia Flye, the assistant superintendent for instruction and the chief academic officer for the MISD, said in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators must scale up academic support, especially small group support, this summer and fall. Remote learning set some students back and Flye said there will be a need to focus on those instructional gaps, as well as providing increased social and emotional learning.
“As we think about the next school year, our ability to leverage technology will stay with us,” Flye said. “There will still be some virtual options, but we know the value of in-person contact.”