In-person learning will be taking place for local schools in 2021-22, but in many ways, education will still be very different than before the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
Technology will be at another level and safety measures put in place at the beginning of the pandemic will remain.
Clarksdale Municipal School District superintendent Dr. Earl Joe Nelson is glad the vast majority of kids will be back in the classroom after much virtual and hybrid learning one year ago.
“Evidence based research says that students learn at a level when they’re in person,” Nelson said. “Evidence research supports that. We’re very proud that we’ll be back face-to-face. In some cases, based on criteria, we will have some students still working doing some online learning, very few. But we’re just very thankful to be back face-to-face getting students the knowledge they need, giving them the assistance they need. We’re working on this year more of a customer service relationship with our students and families.
“We’re here to serve them. They’re our customers, our students, our children and we’re working where we have a systematic approach with everything we do. We have a system in place and so we’re fixing on building the system where everybody knows what’s going on.”
Nelson said literacy suffered as a result of virtual learning. He said the CMSD is working on community and home-based literacy programs.
“Literacy teaches kids how to read and read effectively, efficiently to a higher level,” Nelson said. “It’s going to make a difference in all of our subject areas. Comprehending what they read is very important. You can’t do math and you can’t do other subjects if you’re having difficulties reading.
“This year, we’ll be focusing a lot on literacy. I’m very proud that we’re having assistance in our elementary schools, in all of our grades. I’m very proud of that to add to helping this literacy plan that we’re rolling out.”
Lee Academy had in-person learning for 2020-21 although visitors were not allowed in the building for safety precautions. However, there was still an increase in technology.
“We are going to go back to ‘normal’ school,” said Lee head of school Rone Walker. “We are going to follow our pre-Covid school schedule. Last school year we had to change a lot of our logistics and we are happy to go back to pre-pandemic logistics and scheduling. We have been able to obtain more technology due to Covid grants for technology. That is a major positive that came out of Covid. We are ready to start school and we are looking forward to a great school year.”
While COVID pandemic is in a much better situation than it once was, the Delta variant remains a concern for school leaders.
Dr. Valmadge Towner, Coahoma Community College president and Coahoma Early College High School superintendent, addressed the issue during the July board meeting.
“The Delta variant worries me,” Towner said. “The Syncytial Virus – Respiratory SV – it’s on the rise. It’s very prevalent in the southern states. It’s affecting older people, younger people. Wearing masks is not a bad idea. I’ve been very, very risky the last three weeks about wearing masks.”
Towner said he personally has been wearing his mask, has not had to go to the doctor and feels good.
“We’re still being careful,” Towner said. “I encourage people to wear masks. It’s not mandatory.”
In-person learning is back.
“We’re beginning to meet more like we’re doing now, so we’re trying to come out of that hybrid mode I call it, that hibernation mode where we’re only doing virtual,” Towner said.
Amanda Johnson, executive director of Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School, expressed similar sentiments and said it is not yet the post-COVID era.
“I think we’re definitely in a better spot than we were last year,” Johnson said. “I am still nervous about the Delta variant. Our kids will still wear masks to school. We’ll still have desk shields on the desk. We definitely need to make sure that we are still taking precautions in order to stay in school on our normal schedule.”
Attendance was not at its usual level with virtual learning taking place.
Johnson expects that to improve in the upcoming school year.
“I’m just ready to be back in school with our regular hours,” Johnson said. “One that was challenging last year was not having enough time with our scholars. I’m excited to be back on our normal schedule in order to have more time with our scholars. We believe more time on task equals more learning. We’re pretty excited to be in school for longer hours.”
Schools canceled several activities to keep everyone safe at the height of the pandemic.
Presbyterian Day School principal Millie Morson cited two activities that will be back in 2021-22.
“Back to normal for us, we’ll get to do our musical productions that we normally do for the community and our parents,” Morson said. “We’re excited about that. We’ll do that at Christmas, our big musical for the community and for our parents.”
The musical is Thursday, December 9.
“We didn’t do it at all last year,” Morson said. “We didn’t get to do a lot of singing. We did a lot of other things music wise, but we didn’t get to sing so we’re excited about being able to do that again.”
Grandparents day will also be back for the 2021-22 year and held in October.
“As far as new things we’re going to do, we’re definitely going to have a robotics team and maybe gymnastics after school, which we couldn’t do any of that last year – any after school programs because we had to clean, clean, clean,” Morson said.
“We will continue to clean a lot and wash our hands a lot. At this point, that’s the main goal right now just to continue cleaning. It helped with lots of things. We always clean, but we went above and beyond last year.”
“St. Elizabeth Catholic School will have different social functions it could not participate in one year ago,” said principal Sarah Brooks Cauthen. “St. Elizabeth was so blessed last year to be able to stay in school. There are very few things we had to cancel altogether. We were able to make adjustments that allowed us to safely continue many long traditions despite COVID-19. Two things we weren’t able to adapt or change much were visitors in the school and field trips. So What I think I am most excited about is being able to have our parents, grandparents, friends, and visitors back in the school with us for class parties, special lunches, celebrations, read alouds, and just to visit. I have also already told the teachers I want them to plan several field trips this year. There is no better way to learn about the world than to explore it!
“We continue to pray for God’s protection and His blessings in the midst of a continuing pandemic.”
