A Year of Uncertainty: How Oregonians are Handling the Return to In-Person Education System
By: Collin Bell
After a year of uncertainty, Eugene and all other Oregon schools are transitioning to in-person learning. Now, teachers, parents and students are looking towards the future of what education will look like in an (almost) post-pandemic Oregon.
On March 12, 2021, exactly one year since Oregon Governor Kate Brown closed down Oregon schools due to COVID-19, Brown issued Executive Order 21–06, requiring all Oregon public K-12 schools to offer in-person or hybrid learning models for students.
Following the order, Eugene’s 4J and Bethel school districts opted for the hybrid learning model. Around spring break, parents were given a choice on whether they wanted their kids to remain in fully online learning, or if they wanted them to return to in-person learning part-time.
Alice Callahan, a Parent Teacher Association Co-Secretary for Adams Elementary in Eugene, and her husband were two of the parents who had to make that decision for their two children — a fourth-grader and a kindergartner.
“I definitely struggled with that decision,” Callahan says. “This was a conversation that went over weeks as we were trying to figure out what are the options were going to be.”
Initially, Callahan and her family thought about finishing the school year online.
“Our kids had been doing well with remote school and maybe we could just do that and finish the school year,” Callahan says. “Change is so hard. Maybe it’s better to not mix things up if things are going okay.”
Even though Callahan and her family were hesitant about the change, they quickly realized it was inevitable. According to Callahan, if her children stayed fully online, they would likely be moved classes and potentially lose some of the relationships they had built with their teachers and other students over the past year.
After weighing their options, Callahan and her husband decided to have their two kids return to in-person school under the new hybrid model.
The current guidelines for the hybrid model, outlined by the Oregon Health Authority, stipulate in-person learning can only be offered a few days a week under special circumstances.
Specifically, the school day is shortened, students work in cohorts (a consistent group of students that stay together throughout the day) and work in rooms that provide 35 square feet of space per person — including staff.
These conditions are put in place to keep Oregonians safe but, according to Sabrina Gordon, the President of the Eugene Education Association who represents the 4J and Bethel school district, putting these guidelines into place was not an easy task.
“It takes a lot of effort and energy and a lot of work to make a change in a system that large,” Gordon says.
According to Gordon, the hybrid model offers a new set of challenges for teachers. Teachers are now responsible for in-person and at-home students while attempting to make sure both sets of students receive the same quality education.
“All of our students deserve the same equitable opportunities regardless of what choice they’re making for where they’re going to be learning,” Gordon says. “That’s a pretty challenging thing to do to try to create multiple pathways to learning with one staff.”
Jill Henion, a fifth-grade teacher from Oregon City, experienced similar struggles and says it was difficult for her and her students to transition into an in-person learning environment after an entire year of online learning.
“We packed up our classrooms out of our homes and we went back to the classrooms and we set up those classrooms for two months in a way that was entirely different, entirely new and then figured out how to teach online and in-person all at the same time,” Henion says.
According to Henion, when her district decided to go into a hybrid model, it was another aspect of teaching that they had to reimagine.
“We’ve redone everything we’ve ever done, including how you teach, down to how you connect with kids,” Henion says. “We reinvented the wheel and they kept breaking it and saying ‘make it again.’”
Even though the transition back to in-person school was challenging, according to Henion, it was easier to connect with her students when they were in the classroom with her.
“It was just nice to have them there and be able to get them what they needed and to get to actually connect with them,” Henion says.
According to Callahan, once her kids went back to in-person classes, it was clear that it was the right decision to send them back.
“My kids only get to go to school two days per week and they love those days,” Callahan says. “The remote days now just kind of feel like a drag.”
To Callahan, the two months that her children were able to attend in-person courses this year offered a good transition into next year.
“If we didn’t go back, then I think they would have approached next fall with more anxiety,” Callahan says. “It’s been a good transition.”
Over the next year, educators will have to balance keeping students on track, while covering anything that they missed this year. According to Gordon, although students and teachers have lost a lot over the pandemic-filled year, it’s important to see the gains.
“Educators are trying really hard to keep focus on what’s most important. Yes, we’ve had a year like no other, that nobody wants to repeat, and kids did miss out on things, but they also have been learning this whole time. They’ve learned things that we never would have anticipated or predicted they would be learning,” Gordon says.
To Gordon, as the school system moves forward, it’s the educator’s responsibility to meet their students’ needs.
“As we head back into, hopefully, normal next fall, rather than greeting our students with a mindset of ‘oh my goodness, you’re a year behind’ we need to greet them and meet them where they are and provide space for them to share about the experiences that they’ve had,” Gordon says.
