By: Elise Stefankiewicz and John Stracco
On Friday April 23rd, writers Elise Stefankiewicz and John Stracco had the honor and privilege to sit down and interview North Warren’s administration. They met with superintendent Ms. Bilotti and principal Dr. Dutt. The interview conducted was a student led effort via questions submitted by the student body to help better understand the change in schedule that will happen on May 3rd. But also, bring light to many student concerns about the change. The interview includes a wide range of topics from mental health, lunch, and after school clubs/sports. All of us here at the Patriot Press hope all students can take something from this discussion as we try to better understand the rationale behind the change as well as hear input from our administration on the concerns of the student body.
Q: “What has changed since September that has allowed us to now fully reopen?” - Elise Stefankiewicz
A: “The state has given us updated guidance every other week since July and that guidance is trying to adjust to new science and new data as it comes out. The biggest change that happened recently, is that the state is allowing for flexibility in regards to physical distancing of students being the biggest change to happen since September. The other thing that's happened is that they are allowing districts to consider themselves to be hybrid instruction which is what we are, allowing us to have one day a week that is full virtual even if we are going to school full day. That allows us to consider a return to full day instruction. Something that has not changed is that we still can’t do lunches indoors and in May we anticipate that the weather would be such that we could have lunch outside. Providing us with a chance to finish out the year, be compliant, minimize our risk, and still have a full day of school.” - Ms. Bilotti
Q: “How will lunch work? Is there going to be more than 1 lunch period? What will the online students be doing during lunch? What happens if it rains? Can we bring our own lunches or will the school be providing lunch?” - John Stracco
A: “If the board approves the return to full day on the 26th of April, we would have tents set up for kids for inclement weather and we would be eating all at the same time outside. The plan is 11:50am as our proposed lunchtime and all of the kids will go outside to eat. The middle schoolers will be eating in the courtyards and the highschoolers will have more freedom and flexibility. The highschoolers would be able to eat on the fields. There will be picnic tables, you can sit on a blanket, or you can sit on the stadium benches. The school will be providing lunch, with the students most popular lunch items so expect to see things like pizza and taco salad. If you want to bring your own lunch you certainly can but we are still unable to use lockers so we are hoping this will be easier for kids to just grab a lunch and go. There will be a vegetarian option.” - Ms. Bilotti
“Virtual students will be eating lunch at home during the given lunch period. It would be a break for everyone. Everyone is following the same bell schedule. The classes will be extended to about 40 minutes and then lunch will be 30 minutes. Nothing about attending zooms and attendance will change for online students except the bell schedule and how long classes are.” - Dr. Dutt
Q: “One of our student bodies' biggest concerns is what this means for spring sports - What is the plan for how athletes will have enough time to get ready for practices and games? Will athletes be getting changed in the locker rooms or will they have to go home and then return back to school for practice?” - Elise Stefankiewicz
A: “We are working with the coaches and Mr. Garvatt on options. We still cannot use our locker rooms, but we have asked the coaches to survey their athletes. The option for athletes will be that you come to school dressed and ready for practice or if they would prefer to go into a bathroom and change one by one. The other option would be to set up classrooms that are large enough to have each team have their own room, preferably the middle rooms where there are no windows. We are offering that up to our coaches to work it out with our student athletes.” - Dr. Dutt
Q: “What is the reasoning behind having students adjust to another schedule for the last month? Will Wednesdays stay fully virtual/asynchronous?” - John Stracco
A: “Wednesdays will stay fully virtual this year no matter what. There is no possibility of Wednesdays not being full virtual unless we receive an order from the state. I do not foresee any situation where we can come back on Wednesdays. That said, we are looking to do this just for the month of May. The last 4 days of school are going to be half days, just like they always are. We are looking at a couple of things 1) that is the normal so being in school full time is the normal thing we would be doing. If we have an opportunity to return back to normal I think it's our obligation to propose that opportunity. I know that students are stressed about this because I know that you guys have heralded the brunt of all of these changes. We do know that and we do recognize that. We are hoping that even an incremental step towards normalcy will help all of us feel better and will alleviate some of the anxiety that we are bound to feel heading into September. We anticipate that September will be a full return to normal, we will still have to wear masks and social distance, but we think it will be 5 days a week and full days. Any step towards normalcy is worth pursuing. ” - Ms. Bilotti
Q: “Students have voiced concerns about the new schedule and eating lunch in a school environment. When taking the number of students attending school in person into consideration, does the administration think this schedule change will impact the number of students attending negatively?” - Elise Stefankiewicz
A: “We have heard feedback both ways. We have heard from some students that they will flip to fully virtual if we return to full days and we have heard from other students that they will come back from virtual if we return to full days. When we get closer to that date, we will see what those numbers are. We have not asked anyone to indicate this in genesis because it has not yet been approved. Once it is approved, we will indicate it in genesis and then we will look at it. I understand the hesitancy of eating on site and that is why we are prioritizing eating outdoors. Except in an actual emergency we will be eating outdoors. We are hoping that that makes people feel safer and it makes it actually safer as well.” - Ms. Bilotti
“I have heard of a few students specifically that were thinking about moving to full virtual but this will be discussed on April 26th and we will know whether or not we are moving forward with it. I will be sending out communications to our student body as well because the full virtual students will be expected to follow that full day schedule. The bell schedule is going to be the bell schedule for everyone. Once we know exactly what we are doing, the students will be getting that communication from me as well.” - Dr. Dutt
Q: “Students have voiced their concerns over mental health, not only because of yet another change of schedule but also because of the amount of time all virtual students will be online during the day. Has the school thought about these issues when implementing the new schedule and will this new schedule help or hurt the mental health of students and teachers?” - John Stracco
A: I think that this is the most traumatic thing that our students have been through in their lives. We recognize that. We are also looking to see what we can do to help offer some additional support for kids as we move into full days. If we were in for longer we would potentially have more opportunities to do things like run lunchtime anxiety groups or run some counseling sessions in classrooms. We are hoping to expand the social and emotional offerings we have if we are back on a full day because we would have more time to reach kids. We think that it is natural for students to be apprehensive about this. We realize that this is stressful and we realize that this has caused apprehension amongst the students. We have thought about that and our take on it is that return to normalcy helps student mental health. Any return to normalcy is going to help students feel more stable and more secure as we move forward. But I do understand where this is coming from. This change is probably the smallest change we’ve had in that the only change we are seeing to the actual schedule is an addition of about 12 minutes per period. We hope that it will help prepare us more for the apprehension that we anticipate come September. We are concerned about student mental health going into the summer and going into September as well.” - Ms. Bilotti
Q: “Will the new schedule change how clubs meet? Will clubs be given the option to meet after school or during lunch?” - Elise Stefankiewicz
A: “As soon as we turn yellow, we will be approving in person meetings for clubs. I will also bring that idea back to our teachers to consider.” - Ms. Bilotti
“That is a piece that we have not discussed yet. That is definitely worth bringing up to our club advisors.” - Dr. Dutt
Q: “Would the Administration be willing to consider keeping the schedule we have now to finish off the rest of this school year?” - John Stracco
A: “My recommendation to the board is that we have the ability to move back full days, 4 days a week. I do believe that any incremental change towards normalcy is in our collective best interest. That said, during the board meeting on April 26th we will be discussing this in full. But I would anticipate that this is what we would be moving to do in May. There are a couple steps that still have to happen. There are several authorities that need to give us permission to move forward. We have received permission from the department of education, we have received permission from the department of health, and now we need to talk about this in public formally.” - Ms. Bilotti
We would like to thank Ms. Billotti and Dr. Dutt for agreeing to do this interview as well as the student body for submitting wonderful questions and concerns to help us with the interview process. We would also like to additionally say that our administration here at North Warren works very hard to propose plans that they feel are best for everyone, we acknowledge that, here at the Patriot Press, and we are thankful for this. We are also thankful for our ability to speak up through our school newspaper and share the concerns of many students. This has been an honorable experience. Overall, all of our questions were answered and the administration provided insightful information and rationale behind their proposal of reopening full day. The BOE was presented with this plan on Monday, April 26th which they unanimously voted against. We want our readers to understand that there are many pieces to the puzzle when dealing with something like this. It is not just one person making all the decisions and moving forward. We hope that the information provided can help the student body understand the ongoings here at North Warren Regional High School.
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