SBCEOBy Dr. Susan Salcido, Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools
Two years have passed since COVID-19 forced schools around the world to close their doors; a tectonic shift in daily life with effects still unfolding.
It was March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. By Friday, March 13, many schools here and beyond announced that campuses would cease in-person instruction and move to distance learning to help stop the spread of the virus. The decision catapulted our school leaders, teachers and staff into a logistical maze as they scrambled to convert a 200-year-old American education system into an online model in a matter of days.
By March 28, 2020, nearly all U.S. public school buildings were closed, and almost all would remain closed for many months thereafter, affecting at least 55.1 million students in 124,000 U.S. public and private schools. (Education Week, Jan. 2022).
Dr. Salcido (courtesy photo)
Amid the closures, schools dove into problem-solving mode: How to ensure every home had computer devices, adequate Internet access, and appropriate space for remote learning? How to redesign curriculum and instruction for Zoom school? How to connect students to meals? What about child care? Preschools? After-school care? Access to counselors? Special education support services? What about sports, art, physical education, theatrical productions, field trips, upcoming dances, graduations?
And that was just the beginning.
In the days, weeks, months and now two years that followed, school communities navigated a state of constant flux and entanglements requiring immediate solutions. The journey exposed vulnerabilities in almost every corner of the system while also bringing to light what those of us in education have long known: schools are responsible for far more than academics alone. They are relied upon as sources of information and familial support. They provide a place of community, belonging and consistency. They connect children to other trusted adults who care about their well-being, safety, and future. They nurture children’s emotional, social, physical and intellectual development, and introduce them to life experiences different from their own.
The drastic shift in availability of these supports was confounding.
As we moved through the first stages of the pandemic, concerns quickly emerged about inequities, gaps, and disproportionate impacts on students. Concerns also soon surfaced about student and teacher morale, learning progress and growth, and a new term: “pandemic fatigue.” Then came “Zoom fatigue,” “device fatigue,” “decision fatigue,” “mask fatigue,” and even “compassion fatigue.”
By fall of 2020, due to health and safety restrictions including requiring six feet of distance between desks and on buses, campuses began the year with varying degrees of “openness.” Given the social distancing mandates and space availability, some opened for only small groups of students, while others offered hybrid schedules or even full reopening.
In early December 2020, as the virus continued to surge and COVID-19 cases placed a strain on hospital ICU units, Governor Newsom ordered a statewide stay-at-home order that pushed us into the next chapter of a book still being written.
After more than a year of dizzying changes and inconsistencies, by fall of 2021, all of Santa Barbara County’s public school campuses were open to in-person instruction. School communities rejoiced at being back on campus and vowed to keep their doors open to the fullest extent possible. Oh, the joy … playgrounds full of ebullient laughter, science labs energetically testing students’ hypotheses, performing arts on stage and in motion, athletic competitions back in full swing!
Today, we find ourselves facing a new set of blended realities: relieved to see COVID-19 cases decreasing, and yet concerned about an increasing need to support individuals who feel loss, disappointment, fatigue, isolation, and depression. We are excited about moving on, while also stopping to listen carefully to impassioned voices who have had enough and need more; grateful for how far we have come, and worried about how easily progress could be undone.
With two years behind us, public health officials are now guiding us around a new corner, one that includes understanding that this virus will be part of daily life.
So, our COVID-19 story continues. As individuals, I’m certain that we will find ourselves moving forward at varying speeds and in many directions. In schools, we will continue to work triple-time to meet the needs of those who rely on us. And once this chapter has long ended, I hope we will find that this pandemic did not just merely occur, marked by dates or events, but that it helped forge a stronger and more resilient path for today’s children and for generations to come.
About Susan Salcido: Since 2017, Dr. Susan Salcido has served as Superintendent of Santa Barbara County Education Office, which supports 20 school districts, and nearly 70,000 students, educators, and families countywide. Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Salcido has brought school leaders and public health officials together, providing a forum for sharing information, problem-solving, and support each step of the way.
Closing schools was the biggest mistake CA’s history. It came with such incredible and long-lasting costs with no real benefit to the students. Our state political leaders and unelected bureaucrats threw our children right under the school bus for their own gain. None of this was in the students best interest. If we don’t have a public school system whose paramount goal is the students, what the heck are we doing?
Susan, nice try. You all really let our kids down. We don’t need your little synopsis of what went down. I hope you’re reading this.
Looking at Denmark and Sweden, one could make the argument that all lock-downs, restrictions, and masking were completely over-reaching. As with H1N1 or any other contagion, protect the vulnerable as much as possible but shackle not the Free public! I imagine that we will eventually become aware of far more societal loss from the restrictions, than from Covid life loss burden itself.
Closures, restrictions and mandates have prevented us from traveling to CA . Effective exile for those of Free Will! Hopefully any and all restrictions/mandates will evaporate soon and we can all travel, work, and enjoy our lives freely as before, and FREE OF FEAR!
Oh dear lord – you people and your CRT boogeyman.
Bars wineries and gyms were open all the way through the pandemic? Your twisting it a bit. Republicans need something to be angry about with schools. So sad.
Texas closed schools….
The frenzied right seems to be doing a magnificent job of casting themselves as victims of everything. Unfortunately for them, no one else is buying it.
Totally skewed view, as is typical. Sweden had a terrible outcome compared to the other Nordic nations.
4:03 – FREEDUMB! (and dumber)
For a hammerhead, everything looks like a nail.
Maybe next time if you plop this drivel onto the comments, take an extra 10 minutes between the Tucker Putin show and typing to gather your thoughts. Even by the very low standards of conservative commentary, this is riddled with contradictions and blatant falsehoods, then concludes with pedantic platitudes. I know conservatives and was one for a long time until I kept hearing drivel like yours and saw my party go from leading the free world to being a clown freak show.
Coast, seems like you and local subsribe to parroting the same false diatribes. It’s amazing how some were programmed so easily.
Virtually every other country in the entire world realized almost immediately that schools needed to be one of the absolute last things to close and one of the first things to open…you did the opposite. You closed schools while bars, wineries, gyms, etc, were all open. You completely abdicated your job. And the only thing you made stronger was the teachers union.
100% agree and was in / am in the same boat (either my spouse or I quit a job, or went private school). I’m amazed how well they were able to handle teaching during the pandemic, all with tuition for both my kids (total) being 33% less than what the school district receives for a single child. Things have been going so well for the family, I don’t think we can go back.
General tree – bars, wineries and gyms were open a full 6 months before schools in our area…
Everyone should be angry about that! The school board did everything wrong…everything!
451pm – I would think that decisions and policies that tangibly harm and fail our youth, such as closing schools, wouldn’t be a partisan issue. Everyone I knew (of every political persuasion) was upset about that. It truly was a non partisan issue… unfortunately our school board made it one.l to the detriment of our kids. Which angered everyone I knew, except a few edhatters and a couple of teachers.
This goes beyond your political opinions. I know and heard from so many parents who would normally disagree on pretty much everything else but agreed that closing schools and masking kids the way we’ve seen over the past 2 years was wrong.
“Which angered everyone I knew” so about 3 people.
There are those that are warriors – and those that are perpetual victims. I am a warrior.
Sigh. You continue to tell untruths or mixed truths to further your agenda.
My kids returned to hybrid learning was Jan 2021. Santa Barbra moved to the red tier in March 2021 and bars and restaurants were allowed to open at 25% capacity whereas those businesses could only operate out doors previously.
Wait, the “warrior” is the person who cheers on closing schools down while bars, restaurants, gyms, etc are open…that’s a “warrior”? Yeah, the bars had to serve a food item like chips, fries or a taco to be open, but they were all open (food truck on site was a nice workaround). So being OK with bars being open, breweries being open and gyms being open while cheering on schools being closed is a being a “warrior”…? Interesting interpretation!
Every dollar we spent on private school was worth the sacrifice the past two years. I think the public schools could have done it differently in this state and in this town with our year round mild weather. There’s no changing what happened and hopefully all the students can catch up.