Masks covered everyone’s faces Monday morning, but the excitement was still evident among students and staff as the Owensboro and Daviess County public schools districts finally made the return to full in-person learning.
Superintendents Matthew Constant and Matt Robbins made stops at most of the schools in their respective districts, and both gave positive reports of their day.
“I only wish I could see the faces behind the masks because I feel like we would have seen a lot of smiles,” Constant said. “It’s just excitement and sort of relief all the way around when you think about students and staff. We have waited 374 days for this and we feel like it’s almost August instead of what it is today.”
Robbins said just seeing the students interact was a welcome sight.
“It’s great to see kids communicating, talking, laughing, having great conversation,” he said. “I know with all the isolation that they’ve dealt with over the last 12 months, for them to have that social opportunity, such a missing ingredient to see that happening is great, I know it’s medicine for the soul.”
Constant reported 92% attendance among OPS schools, while Robbins said DCPS had 96% attendance. Roughly 17% of OPS students and 15% of DCPS students opted to remain in the Virtual Academy for the remainder of the year.
As they look to the final two months of the academic year, Constant and Robbins said much of the focus will go beyond the academic aspect of returning to the classroom.
“Our hope is really to first of all see how our students are doing socially and emotionally,” Constant. “That’s our biggest worry even over the academic gap. Once we figure out how they are there, we of course are going to do everything we can with the academic gap to see where the deficiencies are so we can really intelligently make a diagnosis about how next year should go based on what we see in-person this last grading period.”
Robbins said of the emotional needs are “going to be far larger and greater than we can even imagine. We’ve really done a lot of work in preparation for our counselors and even our teachers. The teachers’ role is so much larger because we’re trying to teach the whole child, more so now than we ever have. The needs are so different from child to child.”
Still, they’ll be using these last nine weeks to see where any learning deficiencies may be and how best to address them.
Both district are planning to start the 2021-22 school year on time and fully in-person, though each is considering offering the Virtual Academy for at least the fall semester.
For now, they’re holding on to the excitement that Monday brought.
Said Robbins: “The mood at the district level is absolute celebration.”
