Kelly Kenoyer
In the hustle and bustle of preparing to bring students back, teachers and staff at Hawthorne could hardly contain their glee last week.
Said one staffer to another: “I can see you smiling behind that mask!”
Students returned to school in-person on Monday, Feb. 1, but planning for that return started last summer. Implementation was another matter – theory versus practice. So staff got together at Hawthorne on Wednesday, Jan. 27 to practice.
Teachers went through the dance of drop off and pick up, some playing the part of students as others directed them through the motions. It’s a complicated series of steps, but Chief Academic Officer Rachel Stucky said that’s why they practiced first.
“I want to see their smiles, but I’ll be able to tell how happy they are from their eyebrows,” Stucky said. “I’ve just really missed that element of joy.”
Staff practiced walking in lines 6 feet apart, making sure students used hand sanitizer while entering the building, and explaining what “cohort” means to kindergarteners.
“You all are a cohort, and another word for that is group!” Principal Barbi Riggs cheerfully said to a group of three staffers pretending to be children. “What’s another word for cohort?” she asked them. “Group!” they shouted in unison.
Stickers on the floor throughout the building mark 6-foot distances, and desks are situated at least 6 feet apart in the now-sparse classrooms. A maximum of 12 students can fit in a classroom under current guidelines, said Hawthorne Counselor Stefani Brown.
Student drop-offs will involve volunteers escorting children from their cars or buses to their classrooms, Brown said, and pick-up will involve walkie-talkies.
“The staff members are at the door, waiting for the cars to arrive. Then the parent is going to roll down their window and say ‘I have Johnny from first grade,’ and the volunteer will use the walkie to say, ‘all right we need Johnny from Miss Leirmann’s class, and that kiddo will then be escorted to the door and put in the car.”
The escorts are especially important for the youngest students, who have mostly experienced school online, Brown said. They’ll get an individual guide to walk them to their classrooms safely.
She added that the school is expecting the first few weeks to take a bit longer to get through pick-up and drop-off, as students and families adjust to the new processes.
“We want our kids to be safe and our families to be sure that we’re doing everything we can to have the proper protocols, you know, social distancing and all of that,” Brown said.
The staff are also planning to be flexible in case the protocols are challenging to follow. At the Wednesday training, Brown told staff, “if you think something won’t work, then let us know, because our heads are spinning just as much as yours!”
Still, staff members were clearly just excited to have students back, their laughter echoing through the previously “too quiet” hallways.
“We want to let all of the families know that we’re excited for kids to be back in the building,” Riggs said. “And we still want those kids that are doing distance learning to know that they’re always a part of the Hawthorne family.”
Students who are sticking with distance learning only will transition to having new teachers, as the district has hired four new teachers to handle the K-3 classes.
“They have introduced themselves to all of the students via Zoom,” Riggs said of the new teachers. “They’ve reached out to those students to let them know that come Monday, they will be live with their distance learning teacher, and they’ve already started building those relationships.”
She said the returning students will be greeted with balloons and banners, as well as an orientation video to help them acclimate to some of the new rules, courtesy of Eugene-area videographer Bishop Cutts.
Over and over, staff reiterated that safety comes first with the return to school.
The entire school will get sanitized between the a.m. and p.m. sessions, Brown said. There’s also very intensive monitoring to make sure the school is ready to do contact tracing in case there’s a case of COVID. That involves cohorts not just for classrooms, but for buses, and a carefully kept log of when each student goes to the bathroom, in case there’s an exposure.
The district has also planned to continue providing free meals for students, Brown said.
“Unfortunately, because of safety, we can’t have kiddos eating in the building because that would require taking their masks off,” she said.
“Kids will hang their unzipped backpacks on pegs outside the classroom, and volunteers will place a sack lunch with two milks in each one right before the end of the school day,” she said.
As for the class content, K-3 students will be largely focused on numeracy and literacy during their time in the classrooms, Riggs said, with social studies, science, and P.E. taking place through the distance learning component of hybrid schooling.
“Their Canvas is still going to be live and open and they still will be required to do the remainder of their school day, it just will not be live in person,” Riggs said.
As for vaccinations for teachers, the rollout is still somewhat piecemeal, said Supt. Tom Yahraes. The Linn County health department told him that supply problems are preventing teachers from getting vaccines, so the district has directed staff to health care providers outside the county, where a handful in several buildings have managed to get a COVID vaccine.
“Our nurse sent out the notice that some other medical providers may have availability,” Yahraes said.
He said Friday that sufficient vaccines are available to inoculate Sweet Home staff who desire to be vaccinated this week.
Linn County is still working through the 1A category, though other counties have been much quicker to vaccinate education staff. Gov. Kate Brown’s timeline, by comparison, was for educators to get vaccinated between Jan. 25 and Feb. 8.
Linn County has vaccinated approximately 5.5% of its population, compared to 8.3% of Marion County, 10% of Deschutes and Polk Counties, more than 6% in Lane and Jefferson, and 7.5% of Benton, according to the Oregon Health Authority.