Teachers, families brace for unprecedented school year during pandemic

As both Boulder Valley School District and St. Vrain Valley School District announced after a summer of sparse communication that they would begin the school year online, teachers and families alike are scrambling to adjust for what's to come. The update comes as COVID-19 cases continue to fluctuate in the county; as of the Aug. 4 announcement, cases had been steadily rising for almost a month. But as of this article's publication, there has been a decline for multiple consecutive days. COVID-19 cases nationwide continue to increase.

In their announcement, Boulder Valley said over 300 teachers have been exempted from in-person work, because either they or someone in their family is vulnerable to COVID-19. Meanwhile, St. Vrain cited the state health department's guidance for in-person school during the pandemic, released on July 30, which includes measures like quarantining and cohorting. The district argued that adhering to these would lead to "significant and nearly insurmountable disruptions and challenges" that's best avoided, or at least mitigated, by digital learning. Both districts also said that feedback from families indicated at least some preference towards virtual learning.

St. Vrain will tune in to class on Aug. 18 (Aug. 20 for kindergarten), with Boulder Valley starting a week later on Aug. 26. Rachelle Krumpeck, an elementary school teacher with Boulder Valley, said that though going fully online isn't her preferred method of teaching - or many of her students' preferred method of learning - there isn't a better option.

"The most effective way to teach kids is in person, and that's not ever been up for debate," Krumpeck said. "But personally, I don't see how we can do that safely, when you think of the sheer number of people in school buildings and how many people they will interact with outside of school. It's a bizarre conundrum, that we're not picking the best way to educate kids, but it's because we can't."

After the rush to adapt to virtual learning last spring, Krumpeck is working to improve her teaching style for the fall. Part of that has meant revisiting how she conveys an assignment to her students. Krumpeck quickly learned that she had to be as clear as possible when she wrote instructions, while also being concise, "because my end user is a nine year old." Though her classes last school year had daily meetings, not every assignment happened via their Google classroom, and even those that did just felt different.

"In person, you can talk, say something, then someone raises their hand and asks a question, and you can address that, and another kid asks a question, and so forth," Krumpeck said. "Online teaching has to be more precise. I have to try to cover all the bases, because the last thing I want is to give an assignment and for kids to feel frustrated."

Krumpeck said she made sure she was available for student questions, but found that it's hard to balance work and life when it all happens in one location, whether physical or digital. She admitted that for many days during the spring term, she would be on her computer from the time she woke up until eight or nine at night. Not only was that difficult for her to manage, but it affected her students too. She said some kids enjoyed hanging out in the digital classroom, but others were clearly disengaged, even if they had been active members of their in-person class community.

"I worry about that [digital time] with students, and I know going forward in the fall that it will play into plans and expectations for students, because I know they need to have balanced lives away from the computer," Krumpeck said.

Some parents have the ability to work from home and help their students find that balance, but for those who have to work in person, it becomes just a little more difficult. Take Alicia Salazar, a single mom with three kids in the St. Vrain Valley School District. Between working 38 hours a week as a dog trainer and going to school at CU Boulder full-time, Salazar already had a lot on her plate before COVID-19 hit. Now she's trying to navigate CU's hybrid learning plans with her kids' online learning schedules, to make sure that everyone tunes into class when it's live and turns in assignments on time.

"I've been taking it day by day, week by week, just focusing on what needs to get done in the short term rather than planning in the long term," Salazar said. "I'm trying to get a good routine and schedule together, because without that it's kind of impossible to get anything done."

While Salazar has usually helped her kids with their homework, she said she hasn't usually had time to be active in their classes by doing things like volunteering to chaperone. Now that their schools are shifting to email as the primary mode of communication, she said she feels like it's "evened the playing ground," so to speak, so that she can more easily be involved with their education. Even though she wishes the district had decided on virtual learning sooner, she said she feels safer with both herself and her kids doing online school.

"I don't want my kids to go get exposed at school, or to spread it even if they're not actively sick, making it last longer," Salazar said. "On the other hand, I have my job and my schoolwork, and they have to do their school, and it's been stressful to navigate that. It's just a lose-lose situation."

Both the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain districts are operating under plans that could include in-person class time, given the right set of circumstances. Until then, families and teachers alike will be relying on each other to try and make the best of the school year. Krumpeck, the elementary school teacher, says she's reaching back into her many years of teaching experience and reminding herself that everyone's just trying to figure it all out together.

"It's going to be really hard for a lot of people, and have a lot of sympathy and compassion for that," Krumpeck said. "I have to keep an open mind, an open heart, and just be flexible to the needs of families and kids. That's always been what teaching is about, so in many ways it's the same, just really different."