Change Agent Case Analysis: Covid 19 and William B.

Wade Elementary School

Brittany Lambdin

Educational Leadership and Technology – ISTC 702

October 13th, 2023

School Overview

William B. Wade Elementary School (WWES) is located in Waldorf, Maryland with a

population of 687 students, 62 staff (teachers and IAs),1 vice principal and 1 principal.

William B. Wade Elementary School was opened in 1989. There are 22 elementary

schools total in Charles County, Wade not being significantly old, only having 6 elementary

schools built after it. It received some renovations in the form of an addition 20 years after it was

built (2009) adding on 9 additional classrooms and 3 learnings spaces to the school. Each

classroom is equipped with either an interactive SMART or Promethean Board, most of the

boards being 10 years old or older. Two classrooms still have sliding partition walls in place that

were used to create large learning spaces but are now kept shut to create two separate

classrooms. All classrooms are on the smaller side that are not always equipped for the larger

class sizes, with older technology that often has some kind of malfunction. Overcrowding of the

building at a time required the use of portable classrooms (trailers) to be brought in and still used

now for band and testing. William B. Wade is scheduled to receive a full remodel within the next

3 years, because of this the building does not receive much funding to make any big

improvements or expensive renovations, as we will be leaving the building eventually anyway.

William B. Wade is located in urban area of Charles County, MD. The student population

at WWES is a very diverse one. The current race/ethnicity breakdown is as follows: 56% African

American, 18% White, 11% Hispanic, 11% Multiracial, 4% Asian, there are only 2 students total

representing American Indians, and 1 student representing Pacific Islander. The gender

breakdown at WWES is 52% male and 48% female. A little over one-third of the students are

WWES qualify for Free and Reduced Meals (FARMS), at 36%. Less than 5% of WWES
students utilize 504 services and less than 5% of students are considered English Language

Learners, with only approximately 10 ELL students.

Using the most recent (2019) MSDE school report card, William B. Wade Elementary

School is at the 58th percentile. Based on state testing in Math and English, 36.1% of WWES

students are proficient in Mathematics, and 49.5% are proficient in English. 85.2% of English

Language Learners are making progress towards learning English and only 6.2% of the WWES

student population is considered “chronically absent”.

The technological experience of the staff was a wide range based on ability level I feel.

Typically, older teachers are usually the ones struggling with fully incorporating technology in

the classroom, versus younger teachers, some that are even right out of college, are accessing

technology on another level at times. However, I think the majority of the WWES staff fall in the

middle and are willing to learn new tools and programs that can be helpful.

Our students, like most in this day and age are much more comfortable when it comes to

technology, mainly apps on their smartphones and gaming devices. Something I have noticed

though, is while this new generation is proficient when it comes using their devices, those skills

were not always transferable to the technology used in the classroom. Students had to be taught

how to open a basic word document and save it properly, so managing multiple tabs during a

LIVE zoom class would be a challenge.

Covid–19

Full Disclosure – I only have 1 email from this time and the rest is based off my memory from 3

years ago.
 In December of 2019 the world heard rumblings of several cases of patients in China

with an atypical pneumonia-like illness, that did not respond well to standard treatments. By

March of 2020 the United States had issued a nationwide state of emergency. In Maryland

(where we live and teach), schools were placed on an immediate two-week shut-down on Friday,

March 13, 2020. I first had about this shutdown on Thursday afternoon via texts messages from

my friends as I was not at school with them, I was minutes away from my families home in

North Carolina, having left school early that day to visit my sister who just had surgery and

wouldn’t be returning to school until the following Tuesday. Once I saw their texts, I called my

mom and asked her to get the news on find out what was happening, while I tried to search for a

radio station. Shortly after arriving, I was able to find out more from my friends who were at

school still and saying that my principal was waiting to hear from the higher-ups at the board for

further guidance. Our County Superintendent sent out a county-wide email to staff, students and

families that per State Superintendent Karen Salmon, order, our county schools were shutting

down for two weeks and further guidance would come. I personally sent a message to my

students’ families to be safe and wait for further guidance and I hoped to be back in the

classroom soon.

There was an instant sense of panic and an overwhelming wave of uncertainty. At the

elementary level, working with K-5 learners (ages 4-11), for many of our students we assume a

parental role. Our students were desperately looking at us for answers that we simply did not

have. Unfortunately, I don’t know what that last day looked like in the classroom as I wasn’t

even in the state when the shutdown order was given, I was never able to say goodbye to that

group of students in person. After the two-week shut-down, our worlds were rocked as we had to

come to the realization that we would not be returning to the classroom in 2020 and that life as
we knew it wouldn’t be the same. On March 25th, State Schools Superintendent Karen Salmon

announced that schools would remain closed until April 24th. At this point, CCPS sent out a

survey to families to gauge which students needed technology, the problem was that there

weren’t enough pieces of technology to go around and not all families took the time to complete

the survey, so many students in our communities went without during this time. Elementary

teachers were informed by the Board of Education that packets were going to be distributed at

the school levels created by the Reading and Math specialists the at the board, and that teachers

had to create 2 videos a week, one focused on a math skill in the packet and the other reading a

story that the students could then complete activities for. Teachers would post these videos on

TEAMS for their classes to view and answer any questions that students may have, parents

would then have to help students upload pictures of their work for teachers to give feedback on

and “grade”.

Until the announcement by Superintendent Salmon, most of the updates we were

receiving came from our own CCPS central office. After it had been determined that we would

remain closed until at least April 24th, we began getting more frequent updates from our

principal at WWES. It was very hard to not be angry about the communication that took place at

all levels during this time, as I believe it was severely lacking. The official communications from

CCPS seemed to frequently be shared to the staff shortly before it was shared with the public, not

giving us much time to even process each piece of news. We did receive emails from our

principal occasionally, however, it seemed that this was more because he had too, not to share

any real information, so it’s difficult to pinpoint someone who acted as a leader during this time.

During this time period, my communication loop consisted mostly of my team, using our group

chat we used on a regular basis before the shutdown even occurred. Our communication ranged
from simply checking in on each other, to venting, to administrative questions to just joking

around. To me this is how we maintained some semblance of sanity, trying to keep in contact

with each other like we would each day we’d see each other at school. Additionally, we were all

communicating with teachers throughout the county, comparing what was happening at the

school level throughout the county. There is a closed group on Facebook only for CCPS

teachers, which was one of my main sources of information with regards to Covid, especially

when we weren’t getting the information, we needed from CCPS officials or our individual

schools’ administrators.

Evaluation

Accessibility to technology is probably the number one item that needed improvement.

Many of our students were working from smart phones or iPads, preventing them from gaining

access to certain programs or tools. Students who did have a computer oftentimes would be

sharing with multiple siblings, which was also a challenge. CCPS did make the switch for the

2020-2021 school year so all schools could be one-to-one, with each student being issued a

CCPS laptop that will follow them throughout their schooling. However, internet access was a

problem for some families, so CCPS started issuing hotspots to families, especially those with

multiple school age children, and they also created hotspots at several schools throughout the

county for families to be able to sit in the parking lots and complete work.

Communication at the district level was also something that needed to be improved after

the shutdown and still does to this day. The communication coming from CCPS as a district has

seemingly stayed the same since the initial shutdown, although it was lacking before the

pandemic in general. There have been multiple instances where parents are finding out important

information before CCPS employees or at the same time, as well as policy that seems to change
every other week, or inconsistent interpretation of Board policies from school to school.

Additionally, setting up a system to listen to and involve teachers in the decision-making process

would be a great step in the right direction. On top of being the last to hear about changes, too

often it seems as if the people making these decisions have never set foot in a public-school

classroom.

For many teachers, both new and seasoned, the pandemic thrusted us into teaching and

learning in the digital age now more than ever. Pre-pandemic, my school shuffled around two

iPad carts to share amongst all grade levels (Pre-K-5th) in addition to one computer lab filled

with desktops from the early 2000s. This left us very limited in the amount of technology

integration we were able to support our students with. However, since the pandemic, we are now

completely1:1 with devices and have since trashed the old computer lab turning it into another

classroom. Each classroom is now equipped with either an interactive SMART or Promethean

Board to further facilitate technology integration. Unfortunately, we honestly didn’t receive

much training on how to ensure this technology integration was worthwhile and more helpful

than harmfully frivolous.

Finally, CCPS should consider the future and that a situation requiring virtual learning

could occur again. In the 8 years I’ve worked for this county, a county I’ve lived in my entire

life, we’ve had hurricanes and tropical storms that have led to multi day closures, and several

snowstorms that forced schools to stay closed for several days or longer. This is possibly not the

last time that our county might find themselves in this situation, so it’s not without reason to be

prepared for the whatever might come in the future.

Experiencing Covid-19 as an educator and as a human being as changed me in many

ways. During virtual, I started to question my career choice, having a parent that was overbearing
to the point of being verbally abusive towards me and I was not supported by my administrations

as much as I should have been. Virtual was hard enough as teacher, it was a time for everyone

involved (teacher, parents, admin) to come together and be fully supportive of what was needed

to help each child be as successful as possible. I did enjoy the flexibility that virtual teaching

presented, allowing me to spend more time with my family as I was not restricted to teaching

from my classroom on a daily basis. I was able to spend weeks at a time with my family in North

Carolina during virtual, teaching from my sister’s room when it was time to be online and

helping my sisters with their own schoolwork when I was on break. We grew even closer as a

family during this time. As a staff, we used to have weekly happy hour meetings, trying to keep

that alive and reconnect we started to have zoom get togethers as a staff, anyone able to join.

This was another way I kept my sanity during virtual as we weren’t able to congregate in public

at this time, but we could keep in touch through online platforms. Covid-19 though overall was

not a fun experience nor one I’d want to repeat anytime soon. I would describe it as exhausting,

defeating, depressing and stressful. One upside I have witnessed though, is that it has forced

everyone to be more flexible in our teaching and open to the idea of change. Personally, I have

also tried to be more empathic to what others are possibly going through and be grateful for what

I have in life.
References

CBS Interactive. (2020, March 15). Coronavirus closings: Maryland Public Schools ordered to

close March 16-27. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/coronavirus-

closings-maryland-schools-latest/

Fulginiti, J., Lucas, T., & Ng, G. (n.d.). 2020 timeline: Coronavirus in Maryland. WBAL. TV11.

Retrieved October 13, 2023, https://www.wbaltv.com/article/timeline-coronavirus-in-

maryland/31394971#

Maryland State Department of Education. (n.d.). William B. Wade Elementary School 2019-2020

School Report Card.

https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/ReportCards/ReportCardSchool/1/E/1/08/0

618/2019

Neilson, S., & Woodward, A. (2020, December 24). A comprehensive timeline of the

coronavirus pandemic at 1 year, from China’s first case to the present. Business Insider.

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-timeline-history-major-events-

2020-3