Ever since the first wave of COVID-19 shutdowns, Students and Staff have had to put in a lot of work to make an unusual school year as normal as possible.
In the run-up to a school year like none before, students were given two options: sacrifice the social gathering of a normal year to do online school, or attend in-person. Many students who chose to do school in person are now facing a grim uncertainty about their health and their school year. One student was exposed to COVID on just the second day of school and faced a very frustrating and daunting experience.
Senior Abby Coleman was brought into the office and told she was exposed by someone in her first block class, and had to stay at home for two weeks. The rest of her experience in trying to stay on task when switching from one experience to another was very stressful to her.
“I didn’t think it would happen that fast, so it hit me really fast. I wanted to immediately go home and start on everything and be caught up, but the teachers weren’t prepared for that to happen so soon, so it was very stressful on me.”
That’s because a lot of the staff are working extremely hard to not only provide their students with the most protection possible, but also trying to balance a mix of virtual and in-person classes on top of that.
“The most overwhelming part right now is trying to balance the in school and the virtual,” says Mr Mink, Central High Band Director. “Right now I kind of feel like the guy with all the plates spinning on the poles, and we’re trying to keep everything going and doing the best we can, honestly.” With all this demand on trying to accommodate everyone’s happiness and safety, both band directors are losing sleep trying to plan out how each and every day will be planned out as far as agenda for both virtual and in person students, along with the health and safety for everyone. These protocols for in person band students include daily temperature checks, masks specially made for instruments to be played through, and not being able to play when inside.
These changes in our band program underscore a vast shift in how we educate. Many are having to be sent back home, many are forgoing high school experiences, many are losing sleep trying to maintain it. For everyone, a stressful school year has many facing uncertainty in a new day and age at Central.
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