Change Agent Case Analysis: Covid-19

Linda Pchelka

Department of Educational Technology and Literacy, Towson University

ISTC 702: Educational Leadership and Technology

Dr. Robert Caples

September 17, 2023

 Executive Summary

Physical Space

Reservoir High School is one of 13 high schools in Howard County. We are at the

southern end of the county, bordering Montgomery County to the west, Prince Goerge’s County

and Ann Arundel to the south and east. Many of our students live in Laurel, on the east side of

our district. This is called the “triangle” because Howard, Prince Georges and Ann Arundle

counties all have a piece of the community. Families can move across the street and be in a

different county.

Our school was built in 2002 and was designed for a maximum capacity of 1,551 students

(Howard County Public School System, 2022). Our total enrollment as of the beginning of the

2022-23 school year was 1837. We have 173 staff members that include teachers, paraeducators

and assistants, guidance counselors and mental health support, administrative support, and

medical & family support services staff. Our school is under the leadership of 1 principal and 4

assistant principals. We are also supported by an 8 member custodial staff, 5 member cafeteria

staff and 2 Building Resource Officers (rhs.hcpss.org).

The physical building looks and feels relatively new due solely to the amazing custodial

staff and the commitment of our staff and students to maintaining a safe and clean environment.

We proudly claim the title of cleanest high school facility in our district. Our space is centered

around our atrium area where students gather for a variety of non-academic events through the

day and school year. This very large, open concept space allows us to host events like fashion

shows, table tennis, corn-hole tournaments and a variety of showcase events like our annual Club

Fair.

2
 The space on the first floor has three main walls with the fourth “wall” being the main

entrance hallway that also houses 2 administrative offices. Our cafeteria is situated on the back

wall of this space so it is convenient for students to have their lunch and then spend time in this

open space to socialize. Our Student Services suite is on the opposite end with student access

from the atrium. Three offices are located along the remaining wall and include our Black

Student Achievement Program office, Student Government Office and a larger multipurpose

space that is used for lunch detention.

There is a large staircase just off center that gives access to the second and third floors.

Four other stairwells are located in the four outside corners of the building. Navigating the

building seems difficult until students realize that the far outside is a large square with classroom

numbers starting at 200 (2nd floor) and 300 (3rd floor) and then increasing as they go around the

building. The trick is remembering that room 300 and room 336 are in the same relative corner

since one is the beginning and the other is the end. The center staircase from the atrium leads to a

mid-building hallway and provides quicker access from one side to the other.

Our school is one of 3 schools with this building layout. Each school has unique features

within the architecture though since the choice of where to put the main entrance was determined

by the land the building sits on. Reservoir High School was the newest school in Howard County

until this year when our 13th school was opened in August 2023.

School Demographics and Achievement

According to our 2022 data Reservoir serves 1837 students in grades 9-12 and includes

both regular and special education students along with a special population group enrolled in

Allied Learning Services (ALS). The ethnic breakdown of the school includes American

Indian/Alaskan (<5.0%), Asian (17.8%), Black/African American (33.9%), Hawaiian/Pacific

3
Islander (<5.0%), Hispanic/Latino (19.9%), White (22.5%), and Two or more races (5.8%).

Students receiving special services were reported as Free/Reduced Meals (24.2%), English

Learners (5.1%), and Special Education (7.5%) (Howard County Public School System, 2022).

The Maryland Report Card (2022) for 2021-2022 details how our school is rated on a

variety of measures. Reservoir was ranked as a 4-star school with a 65.1% Total Points Earned

score which placed the school in the 69th percentile rank. When compared to similar schools, the

Report Card data showed that similar schools earned 61.6% in the Total Points Earned, giving

Reservoir a slight advantage. Of note within the data is that Reservoir scored higher in all

categories than similar schools except one, Readiness for Post Secondary Success. The factors

that are described within this category have gotten a lot of attention within the district over the

past two years, but actionable plans had not been put into place until this year.

It should be noted that many of the test requirements that make up these scores were not

completed during the 2019-2020 through the 2020-2021 school years and that only a few testing

sessions returned in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. Testing was suspended and

scores were not used as a graduation requirement due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When testing

resumed, students understood that the measures were for evaluation purposes and would not be

used as graduation requirements. When considering all of the data, Reservoir High School is

meeting the benchmarks for achievement by either demonstrating on target goals or showing

improvement.

During our return to school professional development meetings our Superintendent, Dr.

Martirano, expressed concern about chronic absenteeism across our schools and has made that

our number one priority for this year. Our score from data reported last year (Msde., 2022) was

that Reservoir received a 23 of 35 points in the area that included chronic absenteeism, along

4
with school climate and receiving a well-rounded education. With the end of the pandemic and

students returning to a more normal school life, our attendance tracking shows that nearly 25%

of our students are chronically absent so there is a need for more focused attention in this area.

Technology

Currently Reservoir has a 1:1 laptop distribution policy for all teaching staff and students,

with the exception of paraeducators. Laptops have been received by some, but not all of this

group. All hardware devices and software programs are managed at the district level. Our media

specialist has been designated as our point of contact for all technology concerns. When a laptop

is in need of repair, our media specialist coordinates the repair. It was communicated at the

beginning of this school year that all students will have a Chromebook but that there are no

available spare devices in case of damage. If a student’s device needs to be returned for service,

they will have to find an alternative device on their own until the county device can be repaired.

It is not clear if there are loaner laptops available for teachers.

Our county is currently in the process of reapproving the list of software products that

will be available for teachers to use. Due to new guidelines surrounding privacy policies and

accessibility, some of the programs that we have used in the past may not be available until

companies can solve these issues. For example, Quizlet – a popular online offering that provides

study tools using multiple modalities – has not been approved for use this year due to

accessibility issues.

Teachers are given access to a webpage that details all of the approved required and

supplemental titles for this school year. As of this writing, the process to request new titles has

been suspended as our technology department is still evaluating all of the tools from our previous

list. Privacy policies have always been an issue but this year our technology department is

5
specifically focusing on federal mandates requiring 508 compliance standards. Not all software

that teachers take advantage of follows these federal guidelines which will result in denial of use.

This will be an issue as I don’t believe most teachers truly understand 508 compliance

regulations.

Technology training at Reservoir has been limited. When a new program is introduced

there is always an after school training, which is generally limited to about 30 minutes. A good

example of this was when our county introduced the Lightspeed software package. This software

was available so teachers could remotely monitor what students were doing on their

Chromebooks. Our Career-Technology department had similar software for our labs which

allowed us to monitor specific use and control online access to web content. Teachers had

minimal basic training and then had to figure it out. Our Media Specialist did provide ad hoc

support. We had the program for three years. Use was discontinued beginning this year.

During our Professional Learning Community (PLC) time teachers can choose what they

would like to focus on for professional development. Our Tech Tools PLC last year had 12

teachers, which represent 10% of our teaching staff, participating. Most of these teachers

commented that they felt fairly proficient in their technology skills but wanted to find new ways

to use technology in their classrooms. All but one teacher declined the opportunity to earn CPD

credit for their participation. This PLC group will continue this year to support and strength

technology skills for our staff. As of this writing, these PLC groups have not been fully

established.

Our district has fully implemented Canvas as our LMS and has required all staff to use it,

at minimum, for conveying general information and grades to students and parents. There is no

measure to support how many teachers are actually doing this and at what level. Students report

6
that most of their teachers at least have a Home page and post assignments but much of their

work is doled out using traditional paper-pencil methods. Students do report that a few of their

teachers have moved their classes fully online but so far that does not seem to represent a large

number of our staff.

Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic seemed to approach like something you knew was coming but

didn’t really see until it was here. At least that was how I felt about it. There was a whirlwind of

things happening all around me personally so a lot of what happened in the beginning seemed

like a blur. Much of the documentation – emails, schedules, parent letters – is all purged. A few

things remain and it is from those things and the few I have been able to glean from other staff

members that I will attempt to reconstruct what our school did during this time.

Friday, March 13, 2020 – that was the day. I do not remember much information coming

out to us except that schools in our district would be closing for the purpose of being cleaned and

to expect to be out for two weeks. Communication in our school is generally either by staff

meeting on Monday or by email. By Thursday there was rumor that we would be out longer and

on Friday morning, after we arrived at school, it was announced that we would have an early

dismissal and students were to clean out their lockers. Another rumor circulated that we would

not be back that year. I prepared my room as if I were leaving for the summer, gathering up all of

my personal things and putting everything in cabinets. I know I left later than most but I knew I

had everything I needed – just in case.

There wasn’t much communication that I remember for the next week. At some point, we

were notified that we would not be allowed back into our school for the foreseeable future and

that we would be meeting online to figure out next steps. Our first online staff meeting was

7
Monday March 30 where the plan for the remainder of the school year was mapped out for us.

While the district tried to figure out how to get devices to all of our students, we were to

work on completing online modules in how to conduct virtual learning. Our district called it the

Continuity of Learning (COL) Plan for Education. All of our training modules were found in our

LMS, Canvas, along with weekly taskings for each grade level. For high schools that meant that

we would plan learning activities that could be completed in 1.5 – 2 hours per week per class and

we would do one Google Meet check-in with each class per week for the remainder of the year.

There would be no focus on grading – all work was considered complete or incomplete.

Our first focus was simply to check in with our students and families. Our first email

went to families the week of April 14 with classes starting back up again on April 27. Our

schedule consisted of 1-2 class meetings per day of about 1 hour with planning, grading and

virtual training the remainder of the day. I know I scheduled some help sessions within my day

for students who were struggling and continued to meet with my after-school clubs.

When we returned in the fall, we changed and became a bit more rigorous but did not

return to our regular schedule. Our district sent out a notice of the plan to our community in July,

which was then revised in February to include in-person learning, detailing a 4 period block-style

schedule where each class would meet for 45 minutes per day with an optional 20 minutes of

help-session. One of the biggest issues most teachers had was that the help sessions were

staggered not scheduled at the same time as the class periods. We held classes four days a week

with Wednesday’s being an offline learning day for students. Teachers had meetings and

planning time on that day. When we returned to the building in March of 2021, we kept the same

basic schedule but added Wednesday as an in-person learning day for those students who need

8
additional support. Teachers were required to be in person every day (Howard County Public

School System, 2021).

Once we realized that we would not finish 2020 in person, one of the biggest concerns

was the work that students had already done but was now no longer accessible. We used a

network drive for students to access material, save their own work and to hand work in once it

was completed. Every content area had to re-think how that would work for them and how they

would handle anything that was missing.

One solution I found was that if I sat in the parking lot I could access the school’s

network and retrieve files that I needed. We were allowed to do this at first but then were told we

were not allowed on school property any longer. The district wanted to keep the school campuses

closed. The unique issue for my content area was how to teach programming when I didn’t know

what type of device my students would be using. I spent a lot of time investigating coding

platforms and found a free platform that any device, even a cell phone, could use. Once I tested it

out I sought permission to use it and was able to gain district-wide approval. Finding resources

that met all of the privacy requirements was tough but our district was very responsive to

approving online tools during this time to make teaching virtually easier.

In general, I really didn’t use a lot of digital tools at first. Google Meet was the main

communication tool. Since we already used Google for Education it was easy to set up and use.

We had Canvas in place, even though a lot of teachers didn’t fully embrace using it. As a district,

we brought in tools like PearDeck and NearPod to make presentations more engaging. I had

already been using Quizizz, which is similar but switched because the other two are plug-ins to

Google Slides so they were easier to use.

9
 Because I already enjoy using technology and finding new tools every year to try, I

believe I had an easier time than most but still had to figure out some real issues with teaching

online. There are just some things that are easier in person – like writing on the board. Trying to

explain some coding concepts is just hard to understand. I found myself writing things on paper

and holding it up to my camera so my kids could see a visual of what I was explaining. That was

just plain hard. After watching me do this for a few days, my husband, who was also working

from home suggested a drawing tablet – like an artist uses. So, I investigated those and bought

one. It was revolutionary! Not only could I write using a digital whiteboard in real time, but I

could save the images and add them to class notes for my students. I still use this technology

regularly in my classroom.

Like me, my colleagues also had to solve technology issues. So many reported internet

issues and laptop problems. If you lived in a rural area there was always an issue with

overburdened signals. If your school laptop had a problem, getting it fixed was an issue. You

could only drop it off on designated days and you had to leave it and pick it up when it was

fixed. I had heard that there were no loaners at times. I felt lucky that I had my own laptop so I

rarely used the school issued one. These are problems that we still cannot seem to escape.

We met as a staff regularly but I am not sure how really effective that was. Our group was

so large and not everyone could share – and I am not sure everyone felt comfortable doing so. I

stayed connected with the few teachers in my department and my friends but our staff meetings

were for information dissemination mostly. The one thing that was most helpful was our content

areas were required to meet once a week. I was the only teacher in my building for my content

area so this was particularly helpful for me as I had no one to collaborate with. Being able to

make these connections has helped me to develop several long-term work relationships.

10
 There was an attempt to deal with the social-emotional issues that we were all going

through but I am not sure that was very successful – at least not from my perspective. But again,

this is one thing that is lacking overall and a health crisis did not make it better. At the end of

2020, our principal was retiring and we all felt that slow slip away that always comes with that

transition. When our new principal arrived, we were now fully virtual and it was hard to connect

with this new person.

I feel that making connections with students was a bit tough during that 18 months of

virtual / hybrid school but somehow my students have a better feeling about it. While I tried to

be kind and caring, I always thought they were distant – camera off and not really listening – but

they were listening. Students have said to me that they appreciated that I didn’t force them to talk

and engage and that I just let them share when they wanted to but they knew I would always

listen. I see those students now and they stop and chat or just smile and say hi every day – and

tell me not to retire until they graduate! I am thankful that something I did made a difference for

them.

Evaluation

Now that we are a full three years past the initial events that led to the shuttering of our

schools, it is easier to take a look back to see where we were, what we did and how we have

changed as a result. What I have found as I have personally looked at all that has transpired is

that while much has changed, much has stayed the same. Things change when we, as a society,

go through a crisis but quickly move back, as close as we can, to our previous ways of doing

things. I find that most interesting – as it is a common theme.

In terms of our school responses, it seems best to look at the roles of Leadership and

Academics, Technology and then evaluate where we are currently.

11
Leadership and Academics

Our leadership during this time was in flux. When we were leaving school in March 2020

our current principal was preparing to retire. Much of the communication that came from our

school was simply being parroted from our Central Office. That may have been by design, but

there did not feel like we had much at the school level. I cannot say exactly why that was but

many of us felt that, since the principal was on the way out, much was being left undone for us as

a staff. There were staff members who were asked to step up and conduct virtual training

sessions on topics of diversity and equity to help prepare us for the road ahead, especially since

we did not believe we would return to in-person learning in the fall.

Communication during the end of the 2019-20 school year seemed so regimented, almost

impersonal as information was pushed out and training was held. I know this was a difficult time

for everyone and the pressure to figure out a solution in a short amount of time was critical. I am

not sure if I felt emotionally upset by all of this, mostly because my personality functions well in

high structure environments, but I know others struggled with this a lot.

After looking back on the training modules and weekly taskings that still exist in the

Canvas modules that were set up I am surprised that our district was able to put together such a

comprehensive amount of information in what I now realize was a short amount of time. As a

curriculum writer, I view this as an impressive endeavor. The modules were well laid out and

provided information separated by grade level. Every week we were given the agenda of

responsibilities for our grade bands. What I did see is that after the first couple weeks of

reconnecting with our students, these weekly duties were simply repetitive until the final days of

school.

12
 One observation and criticism that has come out of this is that students have lost so much

academically. I know for that last grading quarter we focused on simple lessons that required

about 1.5-2 hours of time per class per week in addition to the one hour we spent with each class

online. This was a severe reduction in time. Prior to the shut-down, most classes meet for 5 hours

and have up to 10 hours of homework or additional work outside of class. We cut contact and

workload by 80%. By the fall, we regained most of that but were still at about a 45-50%

reduction in contact time and workload.

For the 2020 school year I do not believe that we really had much learning loss. By the

time we left school, most of our content had been taught. As an AP teacher, my students still had

access to AP curriculum and could study independently for their exams. Most of us saw marginal

changes in our AP scores. For my AP classes over the years surrounding the shut-down, I saw a

continual increase in scores for one AP content area and a drop in scores from 2019 to 2020 and

then a sharp increase in 2021. That increase in scores equated to an average score higher than

pre-pandemic levels. While some students took full advantage of new grading and learning

structures, the majority of our students did the best they could with what they had and continued

to do well academically.

When we returned in the fall, I found the same thing. The majority of our students took

school seriously, but a few disengaged and struggled. As an AP teacher, my scores at the end of

our virtual / hybrid year were higher than pre-pandemic levels. Students who want to do well

will, even in strange and unknown circumstances, find a way. This is one of the best examples of

resiliency that I have ever seen. While this may not be the case nationwide, it did seem to be the

case for my students and the few teachers that shared information with me.

13
 One thing that stands out for me was my students recognized the need for additional help

with academics. One of my students asked if she could develop and run an afterschool program

to teach coding skills for students who planned to take the second level course in our academy.

She was finishing up that course and felt that students needed some additional help with concepts

that she found particularly difficult. The program ran for 4 weeks and met twice a week for 30

minutes right after our school day ended. She taught a lesson and provided a homework

assignment. I had 10 students attend every session – all I had to do was host the Google Meet.

This was such a great example of self-efficacy on the part of these students – and is one of the

reasons why I believe our students suffered much less in terms of learning loss.

Technology

Making sure everyone had a working device and connectivity to our learning platforms

was a concern. While we could not handle this at the school level, it was tasked to the individual

schools to help assess the needs of our students and families. One thing that was interesting was

that we were sending messages out electronically to families who may not have internet access. I

think the idea was, if we don’t hear from a student or family, someone from our school or the

county would be making a more personal contact. We tried to send out letters or cards to our

students. One of the things that did happen was families became more mobile during this time

and addresses changed so we did not always know where our students were.

The end of the 2020 school year saw a lot of change in how we managed things with both

hardware and software. Hardware was handled at the district level and we just had to wait until

that was sorted out. Software, while approved by the county, was the teacher’s responsibility to

find, evaluate and then seek approval for. One of the good things that happened was the approval

process was quickened – if you did your homework on the most critical issue, which was student

14
privacy policies. As a computer science teacher, I had to make a quick transition from a

computer based software to an online model. I found one that was developed for high school

students, provided lessons geared towards the AP exam and was free for educators. The privacy

policy was listed prominently on their home page so it was easy to research, submit and

ultimately get approval for.

I lobbied for a wholesale switch to this platform for the fall because it provided better

equity for our students. We no longer had to worry about using the computer as a place to store

programs, lessons and projects. It was all online and available for use by any device. This is now

the standard for most teachers as a software IDE as it incorporates nearly every coding language

we teach and it’s still free for educators. We do have a few others, but none with the flexibility

and power of this platform.

Internet connectivity was a huge issue for some of our teachers and students, even into

the following school year. Most of that is because of where they live. Broadband internet is not

available in very rural areas, even today. Our county did get grant funding to provide mobile

hotspots for both staff and students. Local companies also provided low-cost or free service to

those who needed it. While this service did not provide top-tier connectivity, it did provide

something where there was nothing before. One thing I noticed was that issues related to

technology were always phrased as general issues and were not specific. I do not remember even

knowing the percentage of staff or students who were negatively affected by these challenges,

only that we had challenges. Some staff members would come to our staff Google Meets using

cell phones and say they didn’t have access due to internet issues. Although one of my colleagues

later admitted that they were actually traveling which was why didn’t have access.

Where are we now

15
 Three years have passed since we left school and we are now in our second year of fully

in-person learning. While we talk about things in terms of pre- and post-pandemic and it seems

that many still feel that the health crisis is not yet over, I believe that the majority of our staff and

students have accepted that we are back to normal – or whatever we are accepting as the new

normal. School is back in session and we are holding class as we used to, clubs are running and

athletics have returned as they used to be.

What I see as “new” is that we react to things differently. As a society, I see a lot more

emphasis or concern about how things make people feel instead of finding truth and logic to

what we are doing. There is something about how we tried to handle the pandemic, what it

showed us about who we are as human beings and where we were in our lives that caused this.

Prior to 2020, I would mention to my students how technology is robbing us of our social

connections. During our time of lock-down the biggest complaint was the lack of social

connections – which is almost paradoxical since so many did have internet and devices. These

same students who were texting in class in February were complaining that they couldn’t connect

with their friends in May. Again, these students are back to texting in class and using social

media in school now instead of really communicating with each other. I believe adults may tell a

different story as we did not grow up with electronics and social connections in-person are more

important to us.

One area we are overlooking is the ability to leverage the things we learned about virtual

learning in times of other types of school closings. Last year all Maryland schools were offered

the ability to replace snow days with virtual learning days. In our district that meant that if we

were out due to inclement weather, we were to post one assignment per class for students to

work on and we would not have to make up the day. This one assignment could not contain any

16
new learning and could be made up, without penalty, up to 10 days after the date of the event.

The assignment could take no more than 1 hour to complete. It was decided by our school board

to not offer that as an option this year. We would close schools on inclement weather days and

make up days at the end of the year. I find this to be a huge waste of the experience we have

gained over the past couple of years.

In terms of leadership, communication and academics, my school still suffers from a lack

of cohesiveness we once had. Our new principal has now been in place since August 2021 and is

trying to build that sense of community but it has been a very slow process. Our assistant

principal staff has changed three times in as many years. When the new principal came in, all of

our AP’s were replaced. Last year we had one retire and be replaced and this year we have 2 new

ones. All of this change has caused everyone to be a bit skeptical and a little bit cynical about the

administration. My thought is this is not because there is animosity, but there is a genuine feeling

that there will be more change and don’t get too comfortable. On the positive side, there has been

a concerted effort to improve overall communication across the school but that is coming from

one of our AP’s, not the principal – but I’ll take it.

Technology has improved as the district has made a huge effort to ensure a 1:1

distribution of Chromebooks for our students. The challenge is repairs, replacements and

peripherals. One of the things I have done with my department is to use our department funds to

provide chargers for each of the teachers in my content area. Each teacher has 3 chargers that can

be loaned during their class periods. As a group, we decided on magnetic 3 slot holders so they

are available to students. My students can borrow a charger without asking by printing their

name on the board and then erasing their name when they return it. That process just jogs their

17
memory since this is on the board as they enter / exit my room. It provides a safe guard for the

students and self-efficacy because they don’t have to ask, they just check one out on their own.

I think we have seen the most upheaval in terms of software. At the end of last year, we

received an email regarding approved technology tools and software. All software would go

through a re-approval process to ensure that adequate privacy policies were in place and that the

vendors ensured federally mandated accessibility. There was also an issue of cost versus usage

for some products. During our virtual / hybrid months our district strongly encouraged the use of

NearPod and PearDeck as teaching tools. I used NearPod all the time, but in the spring of 2021,

they discontinued our school-wide license. It is still available for free but is not as versatile as

now the Google slides add-on is gone. I have to pick and choose what I want to create and have

very limited storage.

This year, PearDeck was discontinued. That hit our teaching staff across the county very

hard. Most of our elementary teachers and many middle grades teachers used that software and

now all of their work will be more difficult to access. This change was communicated

countywide because it would affect so many staff members. Other changes have not been

communicated at all. Many teachers use Quizlet, which is now not approved due to accessibility

issues. Nothing has come out letting us know that. I only know because I looked. While adhering

to 508 compliance regulations will take some time for companies to embrace, it will put a strain

on teachers who have spent many hours creating content. Now they will have to recreate on a

different platform.

Because these issues with software are so pressing, I have taken on the challenge of

leading a PLC group that will focus on Differentiating using Technology. It is my goal to help

teachers solve problems related to technology and teaching. There is so much out there that can

18
help that we already have access to but learning it feels overwhelming. Through a targeted

approach, my hope is to streamline that learning and provide ways for my PLC group to use

technology in their daily lessons and activities.

Personal Experience Reflection

When I look back on this experience, I can’t say that I have any particularly negative

thoughts or feelings about it as a whole. There was an event, it changed things in a radical way,

we had to adapt and, for better or worse, we did. Our school system, like every other one, had to

deal quickly with a new environment that no one had thought we would be in. All in all, I think

we responded in the best way we could given the resources that we had. That is from my “boots

on the ground” view. Did we have more resources that could have been funneled differently? I do

not know. What I do know is that when I asked for something, I felt that my requests were

handled promptly and fully. The needs of my students were met and the results speak for

themselves. My students seemed to do well academically and many now come by and share with

me that they felt that I handled it well and helped them through this difficult time. I am not sure

that I can really ask for more than this.

From a personal perspective, my family was dealing with a lot that most never knew

about. My now-husband was working in Belgium and because of a change in contract, was set to

return in March. The news that Covid was spreading had started and talks of how this would be

handled were surfacing. He couldn’t get home prior to March 1 and luckily he did. Our

household goods, however, took another 12 months to be returned. After his return, he lost his

job due to the shut down for lack of work. It took about 10 months for him to find another job.

Both of my daughters were pregnant during this time. One lived in Western Virgina and

the other was in the process of moving to Western New York as her husband had just taken a new

19
job. They moved the first week of March. Once things began to shut down through the summer,

that made life more difficult but only in terms of travel. Because I am off in the summer I was

able to get to New York and just stay there until my grandson was born in August because I

needed to take care of my older grandson who was only 3 at the time. Hospitals allowed fathers

to be present but once you entered the hospital no one could leave so my being there was a

critical need. As luck would have it, my other daughter scheduled her C-section for the week of

Winter Break and I was able to spend that time with her family as well to take care of my

granddaughter, who was 4 at the time while my daughter and son-in-law were in the hospital.

For my family, our major life events, while different, were not shuttered as I know some

were. While we took everything seriously, we did not have a doom and gloom attitude about

things like some of our friends. This did cause ripples and fractures in friendships as

disagreements turned into lines in the sand, and for some, severing of ties. That is the unfortunate

consequence of inflexibility of thought and not being able to see things from different

perspectives. I am happy that some of those fractures are healing and friendships are finally

being restored.

For our society though I don’t think we have quite learned our lesson. While some things

have changed, way too much has stayed the same or returned to what I call an unfortunate

normal. Some of the precautions that we were forced to take for the sake of keeping us healthy

are being cast by the wayside – but these are the things that should be kept in place as illnesses

like Covid, the flu, and any other type of respiratory illness can strike at any time. Things like

washing your hands, covering your cough, staying home when you have a fever and staying

there until you are 24 hours fever free without medication. I grew up with these guidelines and I

feel that is the very reason I do not get sick as often as most, even with asthma. One recent

20
example was my daughter, who tried to take a sick day. Her employer did not want to approve it

because she was needed at work. It was ultimately approved but this, to me, was a pre-pandemic

view and shows a societal “forgetting” that often comes after the dust settles and we begin to feel

safe again.

We simply need to do better taking care of people – because when people feel cared for

they will rise to any challenge and make the best out of the worst no matter what that worst is.

21
 References

Howard County Public School System. (2021, July 16). HCPSS reopening plan 2021-2022

(revised: 2/1/22). https://www.hcpss.org/f/2021-2022/2021-reopening-plan.pdf

Howard County Public School System. (2022, September 9). Reservoir High School Profile.

Retrieved July 10, 2023, https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_hs_reservoir.pdf

Msde. (2022). Welcome to the Maryland Report Card. Maryland State Department of Education.

https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/ReportCards/DetailsIndex/1/H/1/13/0527/2

022

22