TYLER, Texas — Students and teachers are edging closer to what is supposed to be the start of school year. Usually those start dates are set in stone, but this year, with the coronavirus pandemic not letting up in Texas, it's not so black and white anymore.
Some East Texas school leaders are referring to the 2020-2021 school year as a "gray year."
The term "gray year" sounds like a fairly gloomy forecast for what students and parents can expect next year, but school leaders don't necessarily intend for it to sound that way. It's more about the flexibility it's going to take from everyone to get through a year with so much uncertainty ahead.
Gone are the days of just preparing for a few inclement weather days on the school calendar. The 2020-21 school year may be filled with what you can call "gray areas".
"I think it's going to be like that for the foreseeable future," Dr. James Wilcox, Superintendent Longview ISD, said "We are not going to have ironclad statement of we are going to do this for the school year. I don't see how that's going to happen. I don't think any of us can do that."
Both public and private schools, by design, are made up of rules, regulations, schedules and deadlines, but this year? "We've been using the term VUCA World (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) a lot recently," Mike Cobb, All Saints Episcopal School Head of School, said. "The term goes way back into the 1970's, but I think the term has more meaning to it now than ever. Really, we live in a world now that's more volatile, more uncertain, complex and ambiguous, so as we're looking at it and moving forward. We can't really use the same plan. We're used to using best practices or past practices, so as we talk about this volatile world that moves faster, things are changing frequently, uncertainties and what the future may look like."
Mike Cobb, the Head of School at All Saints Episcopal School, says they don't really talk about the pandemic and what it's done to schools as a problem anymore. It's a dilemma.
"Because a problem has a solution. This is really a dilemma," Cobb said. "Dilemmas don't have known outcomes. As we look at all of those things and it' so ambiguous about what that might look like, we definitely have to change the way we think."
That includes letting go of what school has always looked like and any hard and fast plans.
"We've never quite experienced in education, a situation, where we have so many uncertainties," Cobb said. "I have been doing this for 30 years and I've never faced a question how to start, will a start occur. That's just not even been a question that we would consider, right? It started and we went forward. now we are actually considering those things."
They're working to get kids back on campus because they believe that's where students learn best both academically and socially, but it's not black and white.
"All of that is out the window. There is no way our adopted calendar is the way we complete the 2020 school year," Dr. Wilcox said.
Both All Saints and Longview ISD sent out surveys to their families and staff to gauge how they feel about coming back to school.
"Obviously this is a very hot topic. There are people on each extreme here. The majority of our parents want kids back in school," Cobb said.
"In whatever way we start school, we will have staff members and students in high risk categories. We are not going to do anything intentionally to put that student or staff member in jeopardy," Dr. Wilcox said. "We will have options for staff members, as well as our students, and parents as we try to be all things to all people. It's not an easy charge."
To give students the best shot at learning this year, both Cobb and Dr. Wilcox, the superintendent in Longview, believe it will take a true partnership between schools and parents.
"One of the most important things we are doing is our parents have the weekly option of keeping their child at home or sending them to LISD for face to face instruction. We aren't going to make them commit to 6 weeks, 9 weeks or the semester, while everything is fluid for the district and the educational program, it's also fluid for a lot of employers and parents," Dr. Wilcox said.
Many parents want solid answers when it comes to students returning to their classes and reuniting with teachers, but school leaders are asking for a bit of flexibility.
"How does that look? That's the hard part, right? I don't know yet," Cobb said. "I've made the reference that it's going to be much more like a dimmer switch than and on and off switch. There are going to be times we are going somewhere in between what you call on or off and we're going to have to be flexible and have the forethought to plan for those. I think the one thing you've learned is you need to learn to make decisions when you can. Right now, I think we have a few more weeks."
A "gray year" calls for great measures. That's why Cobb assembled a task force of experts, both in the medical field and in government, to help guide their decisions and create four learning scenarios at All Saints.
"What we went through in the spring was something we had to endure. Moving forward, we have to figure out how are we going to do this better. We have to keep our kids connected. So, I think that has to be a commitment from all of us. How are we going to try and keep kids on campus and in each of our scenarios besides Level 4 where we are told we can't be on campus, we have kids on campus in everyone of those scenarios because we know the importance of that socialization," Cobb said. "For each one of our scenarios, it looks a little differently. With a lower risk, we will still have some 'screening, cleaning and in betweening' no matter what level. That's the world that we live in, but as the risk increases, we will have to increase the amount that we screen, the amount we clean and the amount we keep them in between."
Longview ISD will be following TEA (Texas Education Agency) safety guidelines which, for now, include screening students before coming on campus, requiring masks for those 10 and up, and like Dr. Wilcox mentioned, offering both on campus and remote learning.
So, how, with all these gray areas in education now, will students get through another year essentially where they left off, in the middle of a relentless pandemic?
"Just the skill of that teaching staff, the quality of our teachers, their love for children," Wilcox said. "They are just dedicated to providing the best education possible. They are willing to do whatever that takes."
And, to tap in to those Lessons Learned.
"Our top lessons learned would fall into just thinking about the world that we live in. That we have to be prepared for the uncertain and to be agile," Cobb said.
"The biggest lesson learned is everything is on the table. Everything is subject to change and today is not yesterday and tomorrow is not today," Wilcox said.
So, if Leonardo da Vinci was right and "a gray day provides the best light," imagine what a year can do.
If you have questions about the upcoming school year and the impact of COVID-19, email Dana at education@cbs19.tv.