By Bruce Karnick

Friday September 11th – McAuliffe Elementary was host to several special guests. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker, Senator Karla Bigham, Representative Tony Jurgens, Superintendent Bob McDowell, School Board Chair Kelsey Waits, and Director of Teaching and Learning Jennifer Reichel joined McAuliffe Principle Matt Esterby and members of his staff to greet kids as they got off the bus for school. The kids were mostly eager to wave back, many wanting to high five the line of adults that were there waving and wishing them a great day of school. As you would expect, some of the kids were a little shy and did not really know what to do. After the buses finished loading, the group stayed to chat about the successes so far and the preparation that went into the planning process.

Superintendent McDowell started by discussing the how there are different metrics used for the various grade levels. “Our Middle School is running a 10-day model where students are in a set of classed for 10 days then they switch. Our High School is going four and a half weeks. . . four and a half weeks, the elementary schools are also doing something different.” The discussion around that was about how will this influence class schedules and processes going forward and everyone was interested in seeing those results.

Commissioner Ricker discussed how students were actively involved in helping shape the plans both in the emergency distance learning period back in March as well as entering the 2020 school year.

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Adults Left to right – School Board Chair Kelsey Waits, Director of Teaching and Learning Jennifer Reichel, Senator Karla Bigham, Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker, Representative Tony Jurgens, Superintendent Bob McDowell, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Principle Matt Esterby greet students as the start their school day at McAuliffe Elementary. Photo by Bruce Karnick Lieutenant

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Students “were incredibly perceptive as to what worked for them and what didn’t work for them.” “I think the more we involve students in giving us live feedback, the more we get their voices in real time, it’s just going to be that much stronger.” When asked about how have students handled lack of socializing in person Ricker replied, “Students miss each other. The better connected they are, the healthier they feel, and they are more involved.” Teachers are even getting help from students reaching out to other students that are not as involved as they could be. “They [students] have been real partners in trying to shape this.” Ricker said. Kelsey Waits added “My daughter has already set up over the weekend socially distanced play dates that wouldn’t have happened had she not seen her other classmates. I think teachers are doing the best they can trying to help foster those connections.

The most difficult part they discussed were the expectation of the students. The students were excited to get back to school, see their friends, then school starts, and it is the same thing, being at home and doing distance learning. “This isn’t how school is supposed to be.” Waits explained, describing how her daughter was simply heartbroken not going back to the real classroom. Ricker pointed out with the emergency last spring, “Minnesotan’s in general learned their schools are so much more than academics.” She talked about the aspect of academics “and then”. Things like the meal delivery system and the social aspect. The general consensus is hopes that parents will realize how much of a positive influence the schools have in the kids’ lives not just from the book side of things.

After the group said their “goodbyes” and other pleasantries, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan gave us a quick interview and she started with why they chose to come to Hastings. “[The decision to come to Hastings] was really just grounded in the Governor and I spending time travelling to communities across the state as we are getting back to school. As we can see here this is a really special community of educators and students, so we wanted to check it out.” Flanagan stated. She went on to talk about her daughter having to do distance learning for the first month of school and seeing the plan Hastings has gives her hope for her daughter to return to school soon. What kind of feedback have schools like Hastings been giving about how to move forward and what kind of help have they been asking for? “One of the biggest things we knew is that we would have to do is support districts in making the changes they needed to ensure teachers, kiddos and school staff are safe. We were able to commit over 430 million dollars out to districts across Minnesota and that has made a difference.” She continued to discuss how the department of health and state epidemiologists have been assisting schools in the state with anything they can help with. A big one is floor plans, how to lay out the space to maximize safety and efficiency. She also discussed additional partnerships within the Department of Education to help with every student as needed, especially students with disabilities and individual education plans. The state is doing everything they can to get school districts the support they need to have a safe and successful 2020 school year.