On March 15, the schools of the Verde Valley collectively announced that they would be closing for two weeks due to fears of the coronavirus pandemic. The two-week closure was extended through the end of the year by further actions of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.
On Monday, Aug. 17, Camp Verde Unified School District became the first school in the Verde Valley to resume in-person instruction for students on campus, though all districts have begun some sort of online instruction since early August.
The reopening remains partial, as the district gave families a choice of sending their child in-person or continuing with online instruction. So far, schools are opening with barely more than half of their normal student body.
“Last year we opened with 570 kids and now we have 320,” Camp Verde High School Principal Mark Showers said. The other two schools in the district have experienced similar drops in attendance, though schools did see increases as the week went on, which administrators attributed to parents feeling more comfortable sending kids to class after seeing the school open without an immediate outbreak. “We’ve heard from several parents that they’re waiting to see what happens, how things go.”
As of Monday, administrators say there have been no confirmed coronavirus cases among students in the district, though they are trying to remain wary of potential cases and requiring any student with symptoms to stay home.
In addition, the schools have been implementing the social distancing requirements that go along with reopening.
“We’re doing the masks when they can’t social distance,” Camp Verde Middle School Principal and District Administrator-in-Charge Danny Howe said. “Teachers give them mask breaks. I was in a room the other day and the teacher explained, ‘You know we need to be respectful of everybody else. We understand that you might need a break.’”
Howe said they are not aggressively disciplining students for failure to comply, but rather trying to encourage them to put on their mask or social distance without punishment.
“It’s part of a new normal,” Howe said of the new restrictions, which also include regularly wiping down all surfaces before and after kids interact with them. “It’s just something that they’re doing now as part of the normal routine. It’s an extra minute or two.”
Administrators say the most difficult part of reopening has been continuing to teach the students who have chosen to learn remotely while trying to return campus to in-person classes. The district is trying to get students and their parents to make a decision on whether students will be attending remotely or in person by the next few weeks, so they can solidify study for both groups without having to switch back and forth.
“The challenges we’re facing are not the traditional in-person setup,” Showers said. “The challenges we’re facing is maintaining the online version. It’s getting easier. They’re learning to use more tools. We have a curriculum and a platform to launch our instruction and our assignments through Google Classroom. So as we use these tools, they get a little bit better at it. But we’re transitioning to fully in-person or fully online. So within the next couple of weeks our teachers will be primarily doing in-person learning, and still maintaining the virtual platforms.”
