The Power of Perseverance
How One School District Reopened Schools Safely and Successfully
By Dr. Gerald Paterson, Principal in New Jersey
“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.” -George Washington
The summer of 2020 was like no other summer as we planned for an upcoming school year. If we were to return back to school in-person, I, as an elementary principal for over 10 years, had to shelve many learned behaviors and normal routines to make my school safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
To return back to school in-person five days a week Clarence B. Lamb Elementary School and in the North Hanover Township School District, implementing safety precautions, adhering to CDC guidelines, focusing on students’ social and emotional learning, and most importantly TEAMWORK throughout the school community had to be at the forefront for educators and students.
Making the Plan
In late June, New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy along with the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, Lamont O. Repollet, shared New Jersey’s plan for The Road Back: Restart and Recovery Plan for Education with the public. This comprehensive plan provided guidelines on the safety measures school districts must adhere to prior to allowing students back into our schools, as well as the conditions and continuity for learning.
Once these plans were released, the North Hanover Township School District’s administrative team worked closely with local stakeholders to develop a plan so we could safely open our schools to students and staff.
The typical summer planning process includes hiring unfilled positions, developing schedules to maximize instructional time, ordering and inventorying supplies and textbooks, and developing a few school goals for the upcoming school year.
But this past summer brought the North Hanover Township School District’s administrative team and the school community which includes, parents and teachers closer than ever before.
Before we could plan for in-person instruction, the superintendent surveyed parents to see what option they preferred for their child’s learning platform. The two choices were in-person and remote. From those results, we knew that we needed 25 percent of our parents to select the remote option in order to create a five-day in-person learning platform.
Implementing the Plan
After reviewing the results from the survey, the principals in my district were hard at work developing the logistics to carry out the plan based on the data from the survey.
Our plan included:
- Creating learning pods in our buildings to assist with contact tracing in case a student or staff member contacted COVID-19
- Focusing on who and where our remote teachers would work to meet the educational needs of students learning virtually
- Establishing procedures for lunch and the utilization of outdoor space on all three learning campuses
Once the plan was developed, we needed to ensure that a high level of customer service and communication followed so parents had confidence that we would care for their most precious possession.
Prior to school starting we held a meet and greet for students and parents, we launched a series of procedural videos that focused on transportation, classroom, lunch, and recess procedures, and lastly, multiple Q&A sessions for parents in the evening with the entire administrative team.
Coming Back Together
The school doors opened on September 14th and students and staff were elated to be back in school.
What I found over the past few weeks of school is that we are all in this TOGETHER.
One of my favorite moments that put this into perspective occurred when I checked on one of my preschool classrooms to see how their day was going.
Unbeknownst to me, one of the preschoolers, Wyatt, noticed my mask was not covering my nose.
Wyatt said, “ Dr. Paterson you need to cover your nose with your mask to keep us all safe.”
I thanked Wyatt for letting me know and was happy to share this story with all of the students at C.B. Lamb during morning announcements the next day. One of the things I admire most about Wyatt is that he holds his sister Zoe’s hand after his parents drop him off in the morning so she can also get to her preschool classroom safely. When we see moments like that, we realize why we do what we do.
So far, we have 20 days under our belt at Clarence B. Lamb Elementary School and we are taking one day at a time TOGETHER.
Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Paterson has been an educator for 24 years. He has taught elementary and middle grade, served as a curriculum supervisor, and is currently the building principal at Clarence B. Lamb Elementary School, in North Hanover Township School District. He is a college professor at Temple University and Holy Family University, both in Philadelphia, PA. He is an avid reader of American and World history, oil painter, and enjoys fishing with his teenage son. Connect with Jerry via Twitter @DrPatersonCBL.
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