Navigating Recovery

30 April 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of our lives and called attention to the fact that we need to adjust our school system for the sake of health, well-being, and to provide students with opportunities to learn and achieve. It will be incredibly challenging to ensure educational equity as we move forward. We must acknowledge the disparities highlighted by the tragic effects of the tornadoes and the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an opportunity to address the areas of our system that were not fair or sustainable to begin with.

From digital tools like Zoom to a move toward online practice applications to posting instructional videos to old-fashioned “snail mail,” there does not appear to be a consensus as to what works best for our kids. MNPS is tasked with ensuring that every single student has access to the internet and to an appropriate device (laptop, tablet or similar) moving forward. That is a big endeavor and will require input from many partners and the generosity of many stakeholders. Another certainty is that “getting back to normal” is not going to happen any time soon. We’ll have to move toward a new normal that takes into account the possibility that extended periods of social distancing and/or home-sheltering may be necessary.