Newark Rotary saluted Newark Central School District on March 31st.
 
Newark Rotary recognized the teachers, staff and all employees of Newark Central School District by going to each building to say thanks in different ways. Channel 13 featured Newark Rotary on its Bright Spot.
 
By all measures the “Salute” to NCSD teachers and staff was a success. This salute was recognition for all their hard work during “COVID TIME”. Here is what some of those saluted had to say about that time:

“Crazy”- that’s the first word that came to mind for Newark Central School (NCS) bus driver, Steve Milligan, when asked about the last couple of years and the impact of the COVID pandemic. His supervisor, Sheila Dittmar, remembered spending hours and hours watching videos from the buses to do “contact tracing”, watching which kids had contact with each other in the bus. For Steve, trying to take attendance on the bus, figure out and then enforce spacing, make sure the kids were wearing their masks, then keeping up with all the changes about what the new rules were this week, were some of the challenges. When the kids weren’t on the bus, taking food to student’s families became the primary job, especially Spring/Summer 2020. But the drivers banded together and nobody quit, despite all their concerns, including their own health and safety. Both Steve and Sheila agreed that it was good getting back to “normal”, except normal is being short drivers and monitors. “Hey, we’ll get the job done,”said Sheila, and Steve concurred. “We’ve got to”, she said, “for the kids”.

“3/15/20”, said John Ginter, Principal of Lincoln Primary School, “All of a sudden, the school year ended. Here we were on a Friday, telling the kids to have a great Spring break and on Monday we’re sending out stuff saying don’t come back until the end of April.” First grade teacher Meredith Calabretta added, “Our motto here in Newark is “EVERY STUDENT, EVERY DAY.” “So our team came together and decided that we had no alternative for our kids than to “Make it work”. “It was overwhelming,” added Kindergarten-2nd Grade Special Ed teacher Cara Colf, “we had to redesign everything”. Resources were sparse as were staff and they still are; hiring qualified and dedicated staff remains a challenge. Yet out of these demanding conditions and changing guidelines came two positive, lasting changes: 1) Communication with students and their families has been strengthened through new tools for virtual connection, in addition to home visits to assess (and provide if necessary) basic needs and technological help; 2) Teachers have bonded, laughing together in celebration of new success, crying together in shared frustration and fear - of the unknown and of the impact on their students’ health and development. The lasting impact, they each agreed, was an increased flexibility and resilience on the kid’s part…and theirs. Getting across what was meant was tougher with masks on, but the kids cared more about just being in school, with their friends and teachers.
There was some loss for the kids; the 1st graders were more like the pre-kindergarteners in terms of their stamina. Academic progress was slowed but almost all of it got made up in the next few months when school resumed. “It seems like we’ve been in a time warp,” said John Ginter. “Did the pandemic last 2 days or 20 years?”

“Now that we’re on the backside of all this,”said Jeff Hamelinck, Principal of Kelley School (grades 3-5), “This has been a really neat time to be part of Education. This became an opportunity to be creative as to how to teach, and I couldn’t be prouder of the teachers and staff- no one used COVID as a reason not to do things”. “It was a crazy time,” said Teresa Welch, school counselor at Kelley. “Everyone was thrown into the ‘NEW’- the virtual world, scrambling, WI-FI, the Public Library, making contact with families, knocking on their doors. We got devices out to kids, for virtual learning, you know, and some jumped on it, got super engaged. But some didn’t participate. Jeff added, “When we came back for the’20-‘21 school year, kids could either go 5 days in-person or full time remote; 70% chose in-person with 30% going remote. Teachers had to learn a whole new skill-set,” he added, “From the time of the one room schoolhouse, through the consolidation into central school districts, all we did was face to face learning…..and we did it well. Principal Hamelinck continued, “Now, about a third of all students were connecting through high-speed Internet- a whole new technology, methodology and challenge. Some academics suffered: the 4th & 5th graders were struggling with fractions; the 3rd graders with phonics.” But the toughest challenge was on the social side. “Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) was so tough when students weren’t in school,” he stated. “That is a big part of why, now, at the Kelley School, even though temps no longer need to be taken on the bus, or stepping out of a car, the personal greeting and interaction with each student, each day, has become a priority.”
“At the beginning of all this,” summed up Principal Hamelinck, “We gave out devices and food as a way to meet our student’s basic needs. Now we give them, not just supervision, but recognition, a greeting, a smile - because we are just as glad to see them back, back to normal, with their friends and in school, as they are glad to be with each other and with us”.

When I set out to interview the teachers, administrators and staff of the Newark Central School, I wasn’t sure what I would come away with. Yet as I listened to what was being said, I could not escape a growing feeling that permeated their words: caring. Yes, it was tough on us they agreed, but even tougher on our students and their families. I got the sense that they almost felt honored to be in the position to help, to have figured out how to do it and to have been successful. Tough times, like the COVID times, tested us all, made us have to be flexible, come up with new ideas and ways to get the job done. As a member of Rotary, I am proud to have been part of saluting the many school staff for their part in the pandemic response. Now, hopefully, we are coming out the other side of these dark, often lonely times; we are coming out better, stronger, and more appreciative of each other.