This post was originally published as the Superintendent's Corner column in the Fall 2020 edition of the Shrewsbury School Journal
As I write this in mid-November, we are all continuing to experience a momentous time in history, as our nation grapples with several crises simultaneously: the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic; ongoing calls for racial justice and equity; an economy that has created difficulties for many and uncertainty for all; and a great political division exacerbated by the national election and its aftermath. All of these crises are affecting our public schools in the U.S., Massachusetts, and right here in Shrewsbury.
While public education has always been a crucial component of society, it hasn’t typically received the attention or support it deserves. The pandemic has reminded us all that schools are critically important not only for the academic development of our youth, but also for their social, emotional, and physical well-being. The forced closure of schools last spring also made clear the importance of schools to the functioning of families and communities, including the ability of parents to work.
Navigating these challenging times has not been easy for anyone. Families are struggling to balance working and caring for and helping to educate their children who cannot be in school full time, due to limited school capacity because of physical distancing for safety. Educators are performing the most difficult work they have ever done, as our school district is juggling the education of four distinct groups of students simultaneously: two cohorts of students who alternate coming to school in person for part of the week who then must be provided with learning opportunities at home when they aren’t in school; a cohort of students with significant needs who are in school almost all week and require highly specialized programming; and a group of students whose families opted to have them learn entirely remotely from home.
On top of the complexity of the educational program, there continues to be disagreements across countries, states, and communities regarding how schools should be operating during the pandemic. As stated in a recent New York Times article, the decision-making process that school districts have been faced with regarding whether and how to reopen schools “reflects a divisive debate raging in almost every country over the importance of reopening schools while the outbreak grinds on. That fight has sometimes seen parents, teachers, politicians and epidemiologists stake out conflicting positions and has raised difficult questions about the health threats of returning schoolchildren to classrooms — and the educational and economic risks of keeping them out.” Disagreements about what schools should be doing are amplified by the fact that people’s tolerance for risk varies greatly, and have a range of opinions regarding which of the risks concern them the most.
Since the virus emerged last March, our school district has focused on how we can best provide a safe and healthy environment for all of our students and staff while pursuing our mission to promote the well-being of everyone in our school community and enabling high levels of learning. We have sought the best and most recent medical and public health guidance from experts, which naturally continues to evolve. We have empowered our staff – whose dedication and expertise are unsurpassed in my eyes – to essentially reinvent many aspects of how to best educate children given the conditions we face. We have reached out to our families to determine what is working and what is challenging so that we can try to provide the best support possible. And all of this has required extraordinary effort that has challenged all of us like never before.
I am proud of how our schools have adapted to the formidable challenges that we have experienced and continue to face. I am worried that the level of effort required to do this work well is becoming difficult to sustain, and so we must be clear about our priorities and realistic about our limits. I am confident that our students will get the best of which our schools are capable, and I ask everyone in the Shrewsbury community for your continued support as we strive to meet the demands placed upon us during this unprecedented time.
