St. Mary schools keep kids busy learning

It all happened so fast.
Students left school on March 13 and by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ mandate, won’t be returning at least until April 13 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and probably not until May.
Teachers couldn’t formally tell their students goodbye, like they could at the end of a school year.
Instead, students went home on that Friday afternoon and haven’t returned.
“You didn’t want to say anything really, because you didn’t know what kids knew about it and what kids didn’t, and you don’t want to tell them something their parents haven’t told them,” Wyandotte Elementary special education teacher Brooke Blanco said at her home Thursday.
So she simply said, “See y’all Monday.”
“What do you say?” Blanco said. “And then Monday, it didn’t happen.”
Since those goodbyes, teachers have sanitized their classrooms and left for an unknown period of time, too.
As of now, schools are virtually time capsules, frozen in time but absent students, who are idled at home with work provided by their schools.
The silence extends to local athletic facilities, which normally would be the site of district contests at this time but remain empty, instead.
“The first thing that came to my mind was what about sports?” Patterson High sophomore Keatyn Harden said. “What’s going to happen with the rest of our softball season, because that’s what season we’re in right now.”
For those like Central Catholic senior Sinclair Callais, the questions loom at what should be an exciting time for seniors.
“I know I’ll get to graduate, but we don’t know right now if we’ll have a prom, a graduation ceremony,” she said last week.
While it’s a challenge, Callais certainly doesn’t fault anyone for the current situation.
“I know they did the right thing,” she said.
While they are spending most of their time away from school, students in public and parochial schools still have been provided educational materials from their schools.
In the St. Mary Parish public school system, students on the elementary, junior high and high school levels were given printed packets for review for the LEAP test, although testing will not be held statewide this year. They also were given online resources. By using printed and digital materials, the school system can reach those who have computers as well as those who don’t.
“Our main goal was just to make sure that we could have continual educational opportunities,” said Niki Fryou, the parish’s supervisor of instruction for elementary and junior high.
Right now, Fryou said reading, regardless of the subject matter, is critical for the students.
“The fluent practice of reading is something that they can all continue,” Fryou said. “Younger kids, parents can read out loud. They learn a lot by listening, so that’s a plus for all the at-home learning.”
Fryou, who said she and St. Mary Parish Schools Superintendent Teresa Bagwell had planned to discuss deploying a second round of packets for students, also said that resources are being made available via individual school websites as well as the St. Mary Parish School Board’s website and Facebook page, too.
Blanco’s two daughters — Liyah, a third grader at Wyandotte Elementary, and Jewel, a sixth grader at Morgan City Junior High School — have been keeping up their skills while out of school whether through reading or utilizing the educational material provided.
During the time away from school, Liyah misses her friends, while she has video chatted with teachers.
Jewel, who excelled in the 400-meter dash, misses working on her skills on the track.
On the high school level in the public school system, in some cases, instruction goes beyond the printed packets or digital materials.
According to Buffy Fegenbush, the parish’s supervisor of secondary instruction, some students are taking dual enrollment courses, which are college courses offered digitally. Those courses have continued without much change other than teachers who typically monitor the classes are doing so from afar instead of in the classroom. Also, students who needed laptops were being loaned them by the school system.
The district also has students who were enrolled in the district’s virtual learning program, and instruction in that program is continuing without interruption.
“Right now it’s just kind of us making sure we’re meeting the needs of the students who are required to absolutely complete something and also offering extra materials and things for those students at home who are just seeking to continue working on their education, which we’re doing our best not to leave anyone out,” Fegenbush said.
At Central Catholic Elementary, students receive assignments from their teachers via an app, and after they complete assignments in their workbooks, photographs of the work are sent to the teachers.
“Most of their actual, physical work is in their workbooks and on paper,” said Casie Callais, whose daughter Evangeline is in second grade.
Besides the teachers not present to teach the lessons, Callais said things are not different than during the school year, because the students have had online supplements with many of their workbooks.
Meanwhile, at Central Catholic High School, learning has continued using student-issued tablets that already are in use during the school year. That is accompanied by video chats with teachers.
“It’s been OK,” said Charlotte Callais, a freshman at Central Catholic. “It’s been harder to focus on getting my work done at the right time, but I still manage to get it done on time. It’s going smooth, though. My teachers are very helpful when we ask questions.”
At Immanuel Christian, students have transitioned to an online learning option offered through the company the school uses for its curriculum. Using their workbooks as well as the online teaching, the students can continue their learning.
“Where they left off in the classroom, it’s just picked up on the online (learning),” Principal Kathy Galloway said.
Parents send pictures of the work their students do to the teachers so they can grade it.
“We feel really good that our kids are going to be ready for next year,” Galloway said.
As for what the rest of this school year will be like, it is uncertain, especially since President Donald Trump announced Sunday that social distancing continues through the end of April.
“I’m really upset about that,” Blanco said Thursday of possibly missing the rest of the school year. “I missed my kids terribly. I even rode by a couple of their houses and talked to them from the car.”
While the social distancing is continuing, Harden is focusing on what she can do to make herself better.
“Right now what I do really I just focus on what I can do, today, like what can I do to better myself with sports,” she said Saturday. “I work on that if I can every day. Also as a Christian, what I can do to better myself with the Lord, and also I feel like this time right now is a wakeup call for people that you need to focus on what you need to do to make yourself better. Everything’s been taken away. You can’t do anything really.”