Wooster schools adapt to COVID-19 challenges
Since March 17 parking lots at Wooster City Schools have sat largely empty, but that doesn’t mean learning has stopped. “We continue to strive daily to meet our mission of providing a world-class education,” said Dr. Michael Tefs, WCS superintendent.
Spring is normally a busy time for the schools with state testing, academic and music programs, sports seasons, prom, and graduation.
Just a few short weeks ago no one could have imagined how a global pandemic would disrupt every aspect of normal daily life — including school.
“It’s safe to say we didn’t see this coming,” said Dr. Michael Tefs, Wooster City Schools superintendent. “When Gov. Dewine issued his executive order that schools would be closed effective March 17 through May 1, that gave us basically two school days to put our plan into place.”
Tefs said he made the decision to use that last day of classes on Friday for teachers to try to prepare their students and the following Monday as a professional day to prepare teachers for implementing what is basically distance learning.
“I think Becky (Furlong, director of technology) worked about 30 hours a day that weekend to have us up and running by Monday,” Tefs said.
Director of elementary education Karen Arbogast and director of secondary education Richard Leone were instrumental in developing plans for their respective levels, according to Tefs.
“Both of them are great leaders and very hands-on, so I knew we were in great shape,” Tefs said. “They have a great relationship with their teachers.”
Tefs said from both a technological and curricular standpoint, students from about middle school and higher were in the best situation to adapt to online learning.
“These students were already using tools like Google Classroom (an online educational platform that helps students and teachers organize assignments, boost collaboration, and foster better communication). Of course that’s not to say that this hasn’t been a challenge for teachers to modify their lesson plans and shape instruction accordingly. And they’re doing a great job using tools like Facebook and Zoom to set up discussion groups and even virtual classrooms,” Tefs said.
Arbogast said educating students totally online at the early primary level is a challenge.
“We normally take a holistic approach to learning at that age because education at that stage, particularly, isn’t just about mental development, but also about psychological, social and emotional development. We just can’t be hands-on like we normally would be,” Arbogast said, adding she has been impressed by teachers’ growth mind-set.
“This is all so new to them, and it’s so exciting to see what they’re willing to do to connect with their students,” Arbogast said. “I saw a teacher conducting a math lesson online the other day, and it was great to see the teacher interacting with the students, and there were even students explaining the concept to each other.”
As if the instructional challenges of the classroom weren’t enough, there was a whole host of other considerations to be addressed by the schools as well.
First and foremost, according to Tefs, was the distribution of food. “Fifty percent of our students receive free and reduced lunches,” he said. “This was a heavy lift, but we knew we had to come through on this one.”
Tefs said they broke the city map down to neighborhoods to start the first deliveries on Tuesday of that first week and by the end of the week were delivering 325 meals a day to 15 different stops. This also allowed a small number of food service employees and bus drivers to safely continue to be employed.
While changing over to online instruction, it was determined there were a significant number of Wooster families without computers or WiFi at home.
“We checked out about 300 laptops, one per family, and are purchasing some additional Chromebooks for after spring break,” Tefs said.
For families using their phone’s “Hotspot” connections, Tefs said he’s aware Verizon is waiving data charges for those families. In addition MCTV is offering free WiFi to households with students.
As an “essential business” designated by the state, Tefs said the district is balancing the stay-at-home order with having as many employees as possible work from home while some food service, transportation, custodial and maintenance employees continue to work safely within the schools.
“We’re aware we play many different roles within the community,” Tefs said, “and we continue to strive daily to meet our mission of providing a world-class education.”
Tefs said all the changes have been a really hard challenge for parents to navigate. He recommends they continue to monitor the schools’ website at www.woostercityschools.org for any questions, changes and updates.