“When we were on the computer, it was way harder,” said Arriola, who finished his work with ease and took a moment to crack a joke with a friend while waiting for the next portion of class.

Even though the reality of catching Covid scares him, he’s excited to be back with his friends, playing football, being a kid. 

“The masks can get kind of annoying and it gets hot sometimes, but nobody wants to catch Covid. We just wanna be here,” said Arriola. 

After starting the 2020-2021 school year fully virtual and switching to hybrid in mid January, Deyshawn Clarke, Arriola’s teacher and the mathematics curriculum lead for the school, is conscious of the disparate impact Covid-19 related school closures had on learners like theirs. 

“I think trying to play catchup is counterproductive,” said Clarke. 

He aims to remediate basic skills while pushing grade level standards, like beginning a lesson on balancing finances with addition and subtraction fundamentals. Popular artists like Drake loop softly in the background of his classroom as students complete their work. 

“So far they’re really grasping what we’re doing,” said Clarke. “We have really great kids. A lot are just excited to be out of the house. For some of them this is the first interaction they’ve had with other kids since March of 2020.”

Clarke grew up in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush and became a teacher with the intention of serving his community. He said  compliance with Covid safety guidelines at Brownsville Collegiate this year is tight. Only one positive case has surfaced thus far – a sign of their diligence. 

“I’m having kids wipe down their desks at the beginning, middle and end of the day,” Clarke said.”I’m constantly washing my hands. Talking into the mask all day is a little bit of a challenge, but we’re doing what we have to to stay safe.” 

Brownsville Collegiate’s front doors are plastered with Covid-related signs, the first thing students see when they arrive. Similar posters can be found throughout the building. Photo by Frank Festa

Filling out a health pass is a prerequisite to entering the building. Most students remain in one classroom for the majority of the day as cohorts, with teachers traveling to them to minimize contact. Doors remain open. A single student is allowed out of any given room at a time or within a restroom. Sanitation stations, complete with disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer, are in every classroom and at the end of every hallway. Little reminders like stickers and signs are plastered throughout the building. 

“I’m pretty sure I got thousands of emails when we were online,” said Javae Haskins, who’s in Arriola and Clarke’s math class. Though she fared well through virtual learning, she doesn’t miss all of the logistics that came along with it. 

“That part isn’t fun,” said Haskins. “But Covid is a lot. My mom says there’s, like, five new Covid’s.”

Cumulative City data from September 13 through September 22 for confirmed positive cases shows 544 staff and 1,145 student cases for a total of 1,689. When combining district and charter school data on how case counts are disrupting in-person instruction, there’s been 769 complete classroom closures and 571 partial classroom closures, which indicates a cohort from a certain classroom was forced to quarantine. No such situation has yet occurred at Brownsville Collegiate.

“The kids keep all of us happy, and, you know, they’re safe and healthy, and that’s really important,” said Tina Dass, the school’s Director of Operations. She said the pandemic has turned her into their de facto health expert, overseeing much of their safety plan. 

Earlier this week, Mayor Bill de Blasio altered school guidelines on testing and quarantining in an effort to target cases early and keep as many students in person as possible. Starting September 27, schools will be expected to begin testing 10% of their students that consent to testing on a weekly basis as opposed to the initial biweekly guidance. And unvaccinated students who have direct exposure to classmates who test positive will no longer need to be quarantined, so long as they were masked. 

“Dealing with shutdowns last year was even more stressful,” said Dass, who recalled calling staff on Christmas Eve last year and informing them they needed to quarantine. “Keeping up with everything has taken some of the joy out of this job.”

Guidelines that are subject to perpetual revision raise as many questions as they answer, in particular differing guidance for elementary, middle, and high schools, caveats for lunchtime and recess, and a lack of clarity around how virtual learning should look for those quarantining at home. 

New York City’s teachers are also concerned about the reality of the task at hand. The city’s largest teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, released an internal poll earlier today that found a significant lack of confidence in De Blasio’s safety plan. When it comes to keeping a safe social distance, 92% of teachers also believe that students are unable to abide by the 3-foot guidelines. Some schools are so overcrowded and outdated that maintaining a safe distance is impossible. 

With the pandemic looming over how the school year will fare, Arriola is crossing his fingers that they’ll be able to remain in person at Brownsville Collegiate. 

“I’d be very mad if we went back to virtual,” said Arriola. “A big part about school that I like is being able to make friends, and that’s a lot hard to do virtually, cause all we get to talk about is work most of the time.”

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These are the common feelings amplified in the minds of Michiganders in the wake of the pandemic. As teachers and students prepare to resume school, “normal” seems like a distant memory.

Sandra Gaddy, CEO of the Women’s Resource Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is also a current Executive MBA student at Grand Valley State University. She said that going back to school has been both a strange and stressful transition. 

“Although we have a small cohort, some of my classmates are not comfortable coming into the classroom,” she said. 

Gaddy said that she has had to wear masks throughout her Friday and Saturday, 8 hour classes.  Going back to school when the world is at the peak of a deadly pandemic, she said, has been a challenge.

“I don’t like to operate in fear because of my faith,” she said. “On the other hand, I also want to use wisdom in how I protect myself, my family, and my staff. It’s a tremendous amount of stress, yet my faith in God is what carries me.” 

Dr. Lisa Garvelink pauses for a quick photo break while preparing  her lessons notes for the Calvin Academy for Life Life Learning through Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photo courtesy of Dr. Lisa Garvelink

Dr. Lisa Garvelink, an instructor who will begin teaching at the Calvin Academy for Life Life Learning through Calvin College in Grand Rapids this fall, said all her classes would be conducted on zoom.

“We were going to do it in a large auditorium and wear masks, but we changed our plans as cases kept rising,” she said. “The courses are for people who are 50 and older. A lot of my students are 70 and older, so we don’t want to put them in any health risk.” 

She said you can feel the tension around masks wearing which is mandatory in  indoor public spaces in Michigan.

“I do find that people who are so adamant about not wearing masks fall into a particular political group,” she said.

The pandemic has triggered political discord across the country, including Michigan. The unbridled politicization of mask-wearing amid the COVID-19 turmoil has also been exceedingly high. According to Garvelink, this dissonance could have dangerous effects on students. 

Rosine Hounakey, a beauty salon owner and student at Grace Christian University, also in Grand Rapids, Michigan,  said that when the pandemic first became widespread, she had to take a month off. She is the mother of three children.

“My kids were home 24/7 at that time, and when the pandemic hit, I had to stay at home for a month to normalize their schedules,” she said.

Hounakey said Covid does not scare her, but she is worried about her children. 

 “The one thing I am worried about is how to keep the kids wearing masks for over seven, eight hours,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s healthy.” 

Some schools are relying on remote learning to carry them through the pandemic. Other schools in Michigan have opted for a hybrid learning model. 

Chinedu Ikeata, an international  student pursuing a  masters degree in public health at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, said he has a lot of anxiety about the virus and his future.

“I  have this real anxiety of catching the virus in a foreign country,” he said. “When the pandemic began, there was a real possibility of potentially being sent home. “The idea of that happening terrified me.  It almost gives you a feeling of inferiority.” 

The post The new normal for school life is abnormal in Michigan appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“I want them to understand that this is a process that is laid before us via the Governor,” CNUSD Board Member John Zickefoose said prior to passing the resolution. “I don’t want parents of middle schoolers and high schoolers to think we don’t care about them.” 

Governor Newsom released a Blueprint for a Safer Economy on Aug. 28. The blueprint contains a tier system that identifies the risk level of each county based on the number of new cases and the percentage of positive tests in the area. CNUSD is located in Riverside County. As of September 10th, Riverside is in Tier 1 (Widespread Risk) and can’t start in-person schooling until it reaches Tier 2 (Substantial Risk).  School districts that haven’t reached Tier 2 are allowed to apply for a waiver to start limited in-person schooling for grades TK-6. CNUSD will start preparing the waiver application now that the Board has passed this resolution.

Maddie Root  shows off her remote schooling station. Photo courtesy of Allison Root.

“The only schools around us that have [applied for the waiver] are private schools, no public schools have applied yet,” Allison Root, the mother of , Maddie Root, a third grader in the district said. “No one has applied and everyone is wondering why.”

The application requires extensive proof of compliance with the state safety guidelines for schools. It also requires prior consultation with labor, parent, and community organizations. Although the teachers ‘union hasn’t started negotiations, this requirement has led to speculation among  parents that the teachers’ union is causing a delay in the process. 

“These unions fight and fight and fight and say they can’t open,” an unidentified parent said during the public comment portion of the school board meeting.  “I think this is truly an injustice. People are still going to the grocery store, people are still going to target, everyone seems to be doing that safely.” 

Meg E’amato, who has taught in the district for 22 years, expressed a number of concerns about reopening.  She is not against in-person schooling and understands that parents want their kids to return to campus, but she has serious reservations. She believes that some parents aren’t seeing the big picture.

“A lot of our members really want to get back on campus and I just want to make sure that everyone is safe and following the protocols that we have established,” Meg E’amato said after the school board meeting. “There’s so many things that go into these processes. But I think people like to try to pick one thing to put all their anger towards.”

Some staff members have already returned to campus. During this time, a number of staff members have contracted COVID, and according to E’amato, some teachers have witnessed and reported staff protocol breaches.

“I feel like the district is following the protocols, but maybe not all the sites are following the protocols,” E’amato said. 

The debate about when and how CNUSD should return to in-person schooling has been emotionally charged as teachers witness children struggling and falling behind and parents attempt to juggle the challenges of supervising remote learning. 

“I feel like I have to be there, she’s in third grade, typing takes forever,” Allison Root said of helping her daughter Maddie complete her homework assignments. “I know if I did have a job right now it would be way more stressful. It’s horrible that [COVID] happened and I did get laid off, but I can’t imagine having to work and also juggle this, with her, because I’d get no sleep at all. We need to go back to school.”

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