Scott Swanson
It’s been slow going, but progress is being made toward normalcy as Sweet Home High School enters its second semester of full-blown school under COVID-19.
“It’s been really challenging, the COVID hangover, if you will,” Principal Ralph Brown said. “I think a lot of us thought things would be getting back to normal in school, kind of, but I think we have a way to go.”
Students and staff have struggled, he said. Three teachers left as of the end of the semester, one due to a spouse’s job relocation and two others to take a break.
Enrollment at the high school has dropped from 738 on Sept. 13 to 701 on Jan. 3.
“We’ve had families move because of COVID,” Brown said, acknowledging that the past year has been “absolutely the hardest” of his 30-some years in education. “We do have a great team at the high school. We’ve just been buckling down together, trying to work through it.”
Although sports have continued, other activities have been curtailed by COVID restrictions and other factors.
Leadership Class students engineered one change for the second semester, which started Monday, Jan. 31.
Throughout the first semester Brown and another staff member have opened the school doors at 8 a.m., 10 minutes before classes began. Students who have arrived early have had to wait outside, sometimes in temperatures dropping into the 20s.
“The Leadership kids got together with different ideas for school improvement-type things – social, emotional well-being stuff,” Brown said.
One of those ideas was to open the doors at 7:45 a.m. and provide food of some kind to students, who, Brown acknowledged, may not eat before coming to school.
“We’re looking at offering a real basic refreshment, not like we’ve had in the past – parfaits, oatmeal, that kind of stuff. We’ve had a lot of things in the past. We figured we’d start with something pretty simple and get them out of the cold quicker.”
“This was a great student idea, trying to get some little wins for the kids.”
Leadership Class teacher Toma Rosa, who also teaches English classes, said he had all his students brainstorm ideas for what could be done to improve life at the high school, and the early entry/basic breakfast was not only popular but realistic.
“I told them to shoot for the moon,” he said. “They came up with some crazy ideas.”
But, he said, the common denominator was a need to interact.
“Overwhelmingly, a lot of this is the fact that you’re not getting to hang out with friends in the morning time. They were missing that, craving that.
“Getting kids out of the weather is a better way to start the morning than coming in from the cold, straight into a classroom.”
The coronavirus experience has been “challenging,” Brown said.
“I pray a bunch. I pray hard every morning on my way to work.
“But as (former Supt.) Tom (Yahraes) used to say, “We’re Sweet Home Strong. We’re going to make it.
“Nothing’s going to beat us.”