COPING WITH COVID’S IMPACT ON CLASSROOMS
Governor visits St. Clair Shores district for listening roundtable
A group of local educators told Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the impact of COVID-19 school lockdowns caused lingering issues among students but can be addressed better with more oneon-one interaction.
Nine panelists and Lake Shore Public Schools Superintendent Joseph DiPonio talked among themselves and with the governor Tuesday in the media room at James Rodgers Elementary School in St. Clair Shores. Whitmer is seeking input on her MI Kids Back on Track plan, a $300-million program to expand tutoring in state schools.
The panel, which also included a student, parent, social worker and conflict interventionist, said the lingering impacts of the classroom closings produced by the pandemic in 2020-21 and 202122 school years has not only impacted students’ education but spawned unhealthy behavior.
Dave Warehall, a math teacher at Kennedy Middle School, said motivating students has become more difficult, which he blamed on an increased addiction to technology during the pandemic.
“There’s a more difficult time in trying to motivate my students to try to bring about intrinsic motivation that allows them to want to learn, want to succeed in my classroom,” Warehall said. “They were at home for a two years, a year and a half, (and) they were even more so attached to their devices.”
Rebecca Asni, a social worker at Rodgers, sees it, too.
“The challenges are very different from what we saw before COVID,” Asni said. “We do have a cascade of deeply rooted challenges right now that are very new and they need to be addressed.
“Sometimes it comes out in peer conflicts, and sometimes it starts in social media as well, and carries over into school. And then in other cases it’s a regulation of (emotion), a very low tolerance for dealing with frustrations and dealing with challenges, and coming out sometimes in more aggressive behavior or sometimes more emotionally detached.”
Upon prompting from DiPonio, Asni estimated “a dozen” more social workers in Lake Shore schools
would be ideal to address students’ mental health.
DiPonio opened up discussion on the one-on-one tutoring being sought by Whitmer and how it could help improve the “socialemotional” learning of students.
“It’s a safe space without this sea of negative peer pressure,” said Billie Wilson, a conflict interventionist at Kennedy. “They can make a mistake without other kids around.”
Debbie Peacock, a thirdgrade teacher at Masonic Heights Elementary School, said tutoring could help address the large gap between the levels of students in the same grade that is “three, four times” wider than it was pre-pandemic. She called that her “biggest challenge.”
“Many of them know that they don’t know what their classmates have experienced or they were virtual for longer and so they missed out and they have bigger gaps,” Peacock said. “So having tutoring and having those resources for extra intervention, more intervention, especially in the building for math and for reading and after school would help those students to achieve that success and have feelings that they can do it.”
Administrator Jeff Lip, who oversees 130 students in the alternative-education program, said the best way to improve learning is to “keep it small.”
Warehall said while students benefit from the more personal impact of smaller class sizes, the average size of his classes is 30 students.
Whitmer said state government’s “temptation is to keep putting more resources in” to education but added, “I do worry about getting people to go into the profession” and “to make sure they are treated with respect and make sure they are compensated.”
DiPonio said he has noticed a significant drop in applicants for both teaching and administrator positions, adding there are vacancies in elementary teacher positions in Lake Shore.
“It’s clear people are not pursuing this (education),” DiPonio said.
He said it is critical for school officials to maintain the trust of families, which he inferred has eroded in some cases in recent years with claims of schools indoctrinating students.
“When there’s that level of trust that exists between the home and the school, then everything is possible,” he said. “But when that trust does not exist then you start to see people that might say, ‘Well, maybe that job is for someone else.’”
“We have to take those young teachers and support them,” said Kim RuegerWest, a music teacher at Violet Elementary School, whose daughter is a new teacher.
Rueger-West also emphasized the importance of arts education.
“As much as these kids need to know how to read and write, and do math, they absolutely need those intangibles, 21st Century skills, and it’s all in the arts,” Rueger-West said.
“It’s really important for a lot of kids who maybe don’t go into sports,” parent Melissa Florek said. “Music, art, that is where they find themselves.”
The event was one of several roundtables Whitmer has held in the state in recent months.
Afterward, Whitmer said “these are powerful conversations” that will be used to make decisions on school spending, budget priorities and policy changes.
Regarding providing more individualized tutoring efforts, she said whether “we have enough people in the pipeline” to fill tutoring positions is “an ongoing concern.”
“Getting here to Macomb County, working with the ISD (Intermediate School District ) gives us a snapshot,” Whitmer said. “We’ve got different challenges in different parts (of the state). Let the districts make the determinations in what is going to help them best (provide) for their students.
“It was great to hear the enthusiasm and optimism of the teachers. It’s listening to students, listening to educators as well, and the families. It speaks to why we have to focus on the whole child and make sure kids have the wrap-around support in class.”