Smooth Start for a Unique School Year in San Mateo County
Parents and officials pleased with roll out of fall virtual semester despite ongoing crises
By Austin Walsh Daily Journal staff
Aug 27, 2020
Despite unhealthy air quality, technology problems and other associated challenges with taking classes from home during a pandemic, members of the local education community are satisfied with the start of a unique school year.
“It is going surprisingly well,” said Renee Courington, the mother of a Woodside High School senior who, like almost every other student on the Peninsula, started the fall semester with online classes.
Scarred by the way the spring semester ended when schools urgently pivoted to remote learning arrangements following the shelter-in-place mandate, Courington said she was fearful her son’s learning would be further stunted in the new year.
But after roughly one week of classes, the Portola Valley resident said she is pleased with the academic rigor her son has been exposed to so far.
“I feel pretty optimistic the education he will get this year will have him college ready, and that’s all I really care about,” said Courington, who admired the commitment shown over the summer by administrators and teachers at the high school to assure the previous problems are not repeated.
San Mateo resident Jennifer Lucas said her family has shared a similar experience.
“Overall, it’s been great. Because we had to do it at the end of last year, he was familiar so he knew the drill,” said Lucas of her 7-year-old son.
Lucas too was impressed by the preparation of administrators and teachers and she said the ability to build the day around a regular schedule has aided her family’s ability to adjust.
It’s not all good, admitted Lucas, who acknowledged the poor air quality from the nearby wildfires has presented challenges by occasionally limiting the times her son and younger daughter can go outside.
Quick to count her blessings though, Lucas said she refuses to allow the imperfect situation drag her down — acknowledging that many families are facing much more dire circumstances amid the onslaught of natural disasters.
“We are very blessed and doing well,” she said.
To that end, Noelia Corzo, president of the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District Board of Trustees, said she is aware many need assistance and would like to see her district ramp up the resources available to those families.
Whether it is those who require more technological support or in-person learning spaces for families needing child care while they work, Corzo said her heart goes out to the many squeezed by the ongoing crises.
“With the fire and other factors, it’s like the perfect storm of all those things and it is making it hard for people,” she said.
But Corzo, who balances professional obligations while also helping her son with remote learning, said she too has been satisfied with the way classes have started.
“It’s been pretty smooth,” said Corzo, who also noted the experience at the end of last year has helped work out the kinks going into the new semester.
Kevin Skelly, superintendent of the San Mateo Union High School District, said his school system’s year has started without major interruptions as well.
Despite some room for improvement assuring each student has reliable software allowing them to connect to online classes, Skelly said attendance has mostly matched what it would for the start of the typical year.
And with early reports from principals indicating students are engaged with their remote classes, Skelly said he is “blown away by how well it went.”
He balanced that perspective against the bewildering feeling of walking a San Mateo High School campus on the first day of classes when learning was happening but the campus was vacant.
“It’s totally surreal,” he said.
Looking ahead, Skelly said concerns linger regarding air quality because officials had hoped to host some students in outdoor classes on campuses, which is impossible due to the associated health risks.
He also expected there will be challenges for teachers charged with assessing student achievement and issuing grades during a school year unlike any other.
But with some confidence those hurdles can be overcome, Skelly said the year is off to a good start.
“We’ve got issues to work through. We’ve got to be better. But if you told me it would open like this, I would be shocked,” he said.
For Daina Lujan, principal at Meadows Elementary School in Millbrae and a member of the South San Francisco Unified School District Board of Trustees, launching the new school year has been labor intensive.
“This has been the busiest opening I’ve ever encountered,” she said, after several hours of distributing remote learning materials to school families picking supplies up from the campus.
Also crediting the hard work of fellow educators, Lujan said she has been thoroughly impressed with the depth of learning her son has experienced since his classes started in South San Francisco.
“Teachers are superheroes,” said Lujan, nodding to the proficiency they have built in online settings over a relatively short amount of time.
While Courington agreed the educational environment is impressive considering the adverse conditions, she also hoped the pandemic and wildfires would subside soon to allow a rapid return to normal.
“Everyone would rather be on campus. No one is excited about where we are, except that everyone is learning and the kids are safe,” she said. “But hopefully sometime before June they can be back on campus.”
Lucas agreed.
“We are definitely ready for it to change and go back to the way it was,” she said.
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Source: https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/smooth-start-for-a-unique-school-year-in-san-mateo-county/article_16b5d68e-e80e-11ea-a729-cb0f7ed8a215.html