By Logan Meriwether, student reporter
The middle school basketball coach at Darlington Public Schools, which won the state championship and almost had a perfect record in 2019, lost her chance to obtain the undefeated season she had planned for her team because of COVID-19.
Amy Tully coached her seventh and eighth grade girls team to a one-loss season in 2019. She was excited for this year’s season to be here. Because she has more girls coming up from sixth grade, she had a lot of talent, she said. She said she expected another great year and hopefully an undefeated season.
“We were working really hard during the off-season,” Tully said. “The girls and I were really excited for what we had to come.”
Darlington Superintendent Loren Tackett said that, once COVID-19 hit Oklahoma and forced schools to shut down, things changed rapidly in Darlington. Tully began teaching virtually until summer started. After school started back up again in the fall, she said she was saddened with the news that she was still not able to start practicing – and that she would not have any games at the start of the semester.
STATE OFFICIALS
PROVIDE TRAINING, TOOLS
Joy Hofmeister, the state of Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, said she and others have been working to get students back in classrooms safely. Hofmeister has been working with stakeholders, school districts, teachers and public health officials to give schools the latest information about COVID-19.
Hofmeister said smaller schools – such as Enid Public Schools, where 600 students are in quarantine – have been hit the hardest. Hofmeister said this has to do with mask policies in schools.
Oklahoma City schools have implemented requirements for students and staff to wear masks. Schools in the surrounding areas have had fewer COVID-19 cases.
During the summer, Hofmeister said she worked to provide tools and training to educators because professional development support is key for teachers. One one of those tools is the Exact Path program. This program is for grades K-12 and is designed to help reinforce their skills. The program will customize a plan for each individual.
Teaching online not only relies on the teacher to put out information, but also requires students to do their part as well.
Darlington Principal Gina Musea said that, as soon as schools were shut down, school districts were implementing different ways to teach students. One of the main ways was by conducting virtual learning through Zoom.
When students are in the classroom, they are more focused on what they are doing, Musea said. They have a teacher there to answer questions, and to make sure students are doing their work, Tackett said. Many children struggled when they didn’t have a teacher helping them, she said.
Many school districts decided it would be best to still give students homework, but that it wouldn’t affect their grades if they didn’t do it. If students were passing, they still passed whether they did the work or not.
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS?
Teaching virtually and in the classroom is completely up to school officials and what they believe is safest for their community. Darlington schools in El Reno decided it would be best to use both teaching platforms.
With Darlington being a smaller school and not having a lot of faculty, the pandemic has added a lot of stress on all of the teachers, officials said.
Tully now teaches physical education all day and has to do virtual lessons after school for her online students. She comes up with different workouts and fun exercises for her students by videoing herself doing the exercises. She then sends the videos to the students. The students on the online format have to re-enact the video and send Tully theirs so she can grade it.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Officials in the Alva Public School district say they are trying to take the load off of their teachers by having strictly online teachers and strictly in-classroom teachers, Alva Public Schools Superintendent Tim Argo said.
This breaks up the work load and has made things a lot easier on the teachers, he said. At the same time, students are still getting educated on both formats. For the students who are strictly online, this gives them more of a chance to ask questions and get help on their homework, ensuring they get an equal education, Argo said.
Of the more than 1,000 students in the Alva Public Schools district, 975 attend school in-person, Argo said.
Argo said he had his work cut out for him on figuring out how he was going to get students back in school safely.
“I started making phone calls to other schools districts,” Argo said.
He said he met with local and county health officials, medical professionals, teachers and support staff.
“We took the approach of meeting as many people as possible to come up with a plan,” Argo said.
Argo and the faculty encourage students wearing their masks, he said. Argo said he wants to make sure students are well educated on how face masks can help keep them safe. He said his students and staff have done well about wearing their face masks.
Argo said he encourages students and staff to practice social distancing. If students and staff can stay at least six feet away from others, they can remove their masks and get some fresh air, he said.
Alva school officials are having students eat meals at different times and are alternating them among different locations.
School officials asked parents to drop their children off at school and pick them up after school. Parents have done this successfully, and the number of students riding school buses has decreased, Argo said.
When it comes to sports, Alva is limiting the amount of contact students have in football. The district is only allowing a certain number in the locker room to change clothes at one time.
The Darlington Public Schools district has implemented similar rules. The district is also taking students’ temperatures when students arrive at school, Musea said.
Musea said she and her staff are doing whatever it takes to keep their students safe. Being a smaller schools allows them to separate the desks in classrooms. In physical education classes, students can either go outside or stay inside with their masks on.
When Darlington has a positive COVID-19 case, the whole class is quarantined, and so is anyone else who has had contact with the student who has the virus.
Before a student returns to school, he or she must test negative for the virus.
Going forward, school officials say they hope to return to the classroom and allow their students to play sports.
Tully said she is ready to get her team members back into action on the basketball court.
She said she had high hopes that they will get to start their season after Christmas and will be back in full swing with sports.