How West Memorial Elementary School is Battling COVID-19

Longform Feature Piece

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe has called for extraordinary resilience for schools everywhere. Schools like West Memorial Elementary School in Peabody, Massachusetts have learned through hard work and resilience, the interests of the students, teachers and staff have been and will continue to be fulfilled. 

On March 12, 2020, schools across Massachusetts were ordered to be closed for two weeks with the potential of being closed indefinitely.  Over the next couple months, schools were required to be remote through directions of CDC regulations in Massachusetts.  There were no options for in-person classes or gatherings of any sort, therefore erasing the normalcy of education.  These regulations eliminated any graduation ceremonies, proms, dances, and any activities that schools have their students and community members participate in for the rest of the 2020 school year.  

As keeping hope for retrieving normalcy is quite hard for schools to embrace, West Memorial Elementary is just one of countless schools working hard to make education possible through these difficult times. Students and families looked to the teachers and staff of the school as they were the brave faces trying to make students' education the priority during this time of hardship.

“At the time that COVID shut the world down, the primary focus was making sure that staff and students were supported with accessing the things that they needed, food, contact with others,” said Principal Justin Throwe.  

COVID-19 put a huge strain on the lives of students and their families so making sure they had what they needed was the most important thing to the staff of West Memorial.  

Josh Vadala took the position of superintendent and was actually the last in-person interview in the state before the shutting down of schools.  Interviewed and hired March 18, 2020, Vadala became the superintendent of Peabody Public Schools during a time of great uncertainty.  Finishing his contract with Riviere Schools as the assistant superintendent and preparing for Peabody Public Schools was a challenge but working remotely actually made it easier for him to do both at the same time.

“As it came about we realized this was going to be longer and more permanent. Starting July 1st our goal was the reopening of schools.  That was kind of the beginning of it and then it went to a whole bunch of work over the summer to plan on the return for school,” said Superintendent Vadala.

Teachers and Staff of West Memorial worked hard finishing up the 2020 school year with little direction or certainty.  They were then part of re-opening committees and more direct training on teaching hybrid as that was the schools plan for the 2020-2021 school year.  Vadala put together a district wide “task force” that was made up of community members, facility workers, and school committee parents that took place over the summer where they planned the reopening of the school.  

“And then we identified 4 or 5 different working groups to work on curriculum, on professional development, work on the facilities to make sure everything was ready to go.  We had a transportation one and a food services one.  That was like the middle layer of our structure.  Then each school had their own reopening team.  It was made up of parents, teachers, the principal, the custodian, in making sure they were getting it.  We had hundreds of people working all summer really planning to get this up and rolling and ready for September,” said Superintendent Vadala.

All of the hard work from these community members and people close to the school contributed to using a hybrid model of teaching the first day possible, September 16, 2020.  Peabody is one of the largest cities in the North Shore and the 25th largest city in Massachusetts so opening this early in a hybrid paved the way for other schools to do the same.  Vandala believes this wouldn't have been possible without all the pre-planning throughout the summer.

“Our big thing from the beginning is that we wanted to offer options.  We know that we have 6,000 students in Peabody and we know that some people want to be full in person and some people who want to be fully remote; and we wanted to provide that option.  Not only for our families but also for our staff,” said Superintendent Vadala.

As a teacher at West Memorial Elementary, Beth Nagle teaches in the Special Education Department and experienced firsthand the hardship of teaching during a pandemic.  She teaches 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students. 

“My students struggled with remote learning. It was difficult to keep them engaged in activities, while I was learning how to teach remotely.  We were not trained in Google Classroom and other ways to reach students remotely.  Luckily, every student received their own chromebook and access to WiFi this year.  I found the biggest struggle was actually to get them on-line to do anything.  They all thought it was a vacation and their parents struggled to get them to do any sort of academics,” said Ms. Nagle.  

Superintendent Vadala was able to put the grant money and stimulus package from the state towards issuing chromebooks to all elementary school students.  This allowed every student remote access to their teachers, classes and work.  But regardless, remote learning was still quite difficult for elementary students.  

“We have a closer relationship due to covid.  The students appreciate being in person. When we have a remote day, my students express that they do not like it and would rather be in school,” said Ms. Nagle

It is clear to teachers that most students would rather be back in school rather than working remotely.  She explains that students do not put as much effort into remote class discussions or learning activities which makes it hard for her to teach.  

“There are far too many distractions like siblings, tv, or having a split screen on their computer for them to pay attention.  I found that students had poor work ethic without an adult checking in on them during remote learning,” said Ms. Nagle.

While the option for remote learning is still available for any students and families who prefer or need it, West Elementary is now open for in-person classes.  Following the CDC guidelines of wearing masks inside and keeping 6 feet of distance between one another, students are now able to learn in person again.  

“We’re extremely excited to welcome elementary students on Monday the 29th, fully in person.  We are continuing to offer the remote option for families because we thought that was really important because there still is a group of families that want to be fully remote and we want to support that.  And then on Wednesday, April 7th our middle and high school students will return fully in person.  It is very exciting for our families and teachers because they really want to see the kids too,” said Superintendent Vadala.  

Teachers and staff have instilled hope in their students of being back in the classroom, and the kids have been looking forward to going back to school.  While the education system is not back to normal, the teachers and students are making the best of it while following the guidelines of the state.

“Students and staff are appreciative for face to face interaction.  It is hard to see and gage what a student is grasping about a subject through a computer monitor,” said Ms. Nagle.

All the hard work done in the summer by teachers, staff, community members and families has led to the reopening of West Elementary.  The students are excited to be interacting with their teachers and classmates in person once again.  

“The people are what matters the most and I think that what I’ve learned is that having a really strong team and communicating the expectations effectively is really important.  Sometimes you make mistakes and you have to own it and sometimes the guidance changes and you have to adapt.  It’s just really trying to make those personal relationships and make communications with people about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” said Vadala.

Positivity throughout the teaching and learning process was really important for the students to stay engaged and enjoy school still.  Principal Throwe wanted to make sure that students and staff were more focused on the mental health of students and keep them excited to be in class even though their class was through a screen.

“We did fun things as best we could. Flashmob type videos, reading stories to the students, bingo boards for staff, support boards of meals, exercise videos, etc all tried to help keep the routine as ‘Normal’ as possible,” said Principal Throwe.

Throughout a time of difficulty, confusion, and the uncertainty of the future, the resilience of staff, teachers and even the students themselves was a huge challenge that West Memorial Elementary overcame.  They showed that with hard work and focus on the interests of their students, reopening the school with safety measures is possible.  West Memorial Elementary leads as an example for other school systems and staff that it is possible to reopen schools.  

As long as the district and community as a whole is willing to work together to make a change for the better.  Soon schools across the North Shore will be able to be in person once again and keep their students accessible to the best education possible during this time.