LCC Principal says students did not fall behind

LAUREL — The pandemic of 2020 has affected everyone in some way, good or bad. The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge School District is no different.

The decision to close the school in March took many by surprise. Thus, many family homes were full of children and in some cases the parents too, since job closures and layoffs were abound.

At first glance, many would see this as a crisis, and for some it was. To say the least, no one had ever experienced nor was ready for such a time.

But there were bright moments amidst the chaos.

Families being together in the home, relationships being worked out, and human beings pulling together, in some instances, for the first time.

The LCC school staff became one of these bright lights that helped get families through,

“Right away we utilized what we had available [including] technology and hardworking teachers,” said Elementary School Principal Paige Parsons. “Our LCC staff went above and beyond to help our students feel connected and supported.”

The connection would include curriculum being sent home with follow-up from teachers. This follow-up included assurance to the parents that they would not need to teach students anything new, only keep them reading and practicing what they already had learned.

For many, the virus was expected to slow in the summer, but it did not. This left the public and officials concerned that home-schooling might continue. In August, the decision was made that school would begin as scheduled with some modifications. Masks and social distancing were enforced.

LCC school staff was ready and willing to meet the challenge of what is known as the “summer slide” (losing academic skills over the summer) since the 2020 vacation lasted so long.

“Getting ‘caught up’ was not our mindset. ‘Teaching kids where they are at’ was really the reality we had to focus on to make gains.” Parsons said. “(Students) came back more resilient and ready than we thought they would. The summer slide was alive and well, but it was not so dramatic that we could not make grade level gains. In fact, many of our students made impressive growth during their MAP and AimsWeb benchmarking. I believe our success comes from having teachers that can really focus on a student’s needs and find strategies that help them. Our building has focused a lot of time into studying evidence-based practices and strategies. Those certainly were tested during our long break. It was great to know that our students had mastered far more than we gave them credit for back in March.”

When asked where the students are now academically, Parsons exclaimed great joy to have the students caught up, “We are very typical right now. I did not think I would be able to say that during our closure time. We will always have students that struggle, but it does not seem to be a class wide or school wide struggle. School feels very normal right now.”

Parsons closes by adding, “LCC teachers are amazing—hands down. My team rallied through our closure with grace and professionalism. They care so deeply for kids and will do just about anything to support them. My office saw a lot of tears from worried staff, and those tears typically resulted in some sort of problem-solving measure to ensure a student or a family’s needs were met. We are so blessed to have these educators in our district. They do not get enough praise or recognition for the love, time, and expertise they put forth for our students.”

LCC’s story is another great victory amongst the crisis that has been faced together as a community and country.

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