Watonga Schools Continue to Tackle a Changing World

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  • Watonga Schools Continue to Tackle a Changing World
    Watonga Schools Continue to Tackle a Changing World
  • Mark Batt Superintendent of Watonga Schools
    Mark Batt Superintendent of Watonga Schools
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With COVID-19 affecting multiple aspects of everyday life, Mark Batt, superintendent of Watonga Schools, says the faculty and students all have been going through this experience together.

Despite challenges ranging from virtual and in-person learning to new technology, Batt says he’s impressed with how the teachers have adapted and appreciates the support of the community.

With an ever-changing plan that could be altered in a day, Batt says the district is ready to meet the needs of its faculty and students in whatever way it can.

The Watonga Republican recently had the opportunity to talk with Batt about how the schools have been handling these situations.

How have the faculty and students been dealing with COVID as a whole?

Well, it's been stressful as it has been on everyone. Lots of change. Our faculty and our students have been very flexible. They've been very accepting of the changes, and I think overall they’ve handled it really well. Our teachers had to retool their whole approach to teaching this year. We've got microphones and video cameras in every classroom and so the teachers have had to learn the technology that they’re using to teach. Sometimes it’s to a full class of kids, sometimes it’s half in the classroom and half online, and then sometimes it’s all online. So, it's been difficult, but they've done a good job of adapting to everything and doing it with a good attitude. I've been really impressed with what they've done.

How do you decide who goes virtual and who's in class? Is that a choice the students get to make?

Our plan from the get-go was always to give three choices to the parents. They can choose to be 100% on campus, 100% online, or a blended model. We just felt like that's a parental decision because this thing really just depends on your perspective. If you've got some underlying conditions or you've got some people in your household that have underlying conditions, we didn't want to force anybody to be on campus and put themselves or their family at risk. That's always been a parental decision. We've had some that have kept them out just over a short period. Sometimes when it spikes in the community, people will pull their kids out for a week or two until things settle down. After Thanksgiving, we had several parents that just went ahead and kept their kids home for a time to let that spike go down. We're trying to make it as accessible as possible. The kids who stay at home, they're actually getting to see their teacher live and communicate with them as well as hear their peers’ questions. So that's as close as being able to sit in the classroom as we felt like we could make it.

Are there any plans to change or add any new guidelines for the new year?

Well, we decided to start this semester off virtual for the first week and that's going to give us a chance to get a handle on how many kids we had affected over the break because we really don't know until the kids show back up. That way we at least can get teachers interacting with kids virtually, so we can find out what our student body makeup is going to look like. We felt that at least getting to Friday gets us two weeks from Christmas, and hopefully, we can head off some of the spikes like we saw after Thanksgiving.

How has this year’s senior class been dealing with this and how does it compare to the 2020 graduating class?

Well, first of all, last year’s senior class got all of the fun things of the senior year wiped out except graduation. They were never able to have a prom. They were never able to compete in their senior season of sports in the spring. They were hit really hard. I really feel badly for those kids that had to go through that last year as seniors. This year’s senior class has at least been closer to normal than last spring. We’re meeting in person for the most part. We've had some days and a week here and there that we've been out, but for the most part, we've been in. Athletics for the fall moved along pretty well. Our football team got hit with two games we lost, and wrestling has been going well. Basketball still hasn't been able to start; in fact, they haven't played a game yet because of different COVID protocols, either on our behalf or on the other teams’. (Editor’s note: The basketball teams have since played a couple of games.) It's been difficult, but overall, I think that the seniors seem to just be excited to get to compete and do some of the normal things because they saw what happened to last year’s senior class and I know they want to try to avoid that.

Do you know how plans with prom or any other future events are looking like at the moment?

It's too far out to make any decisions yet. We've made decisions on one day and the next day we have to change our course because the entire situation has changed. It's difficult to foresee with it being three or four months out. We certainly hope that we could get everything back to normal. We hope that we can have a normal spring if this vaccine gets circulated around and actually works so that things can move back that way. That's our hope, but we just can't know too much right now.

How are the schools dealing with the vaccine? Are the schools encouraging staff and students to get it?

We sent a poll out today as the state asked us to get some numbers together on how many teachers we would have that would want to take the vaccine. We're collecting that data right now. That's certainly the teacher's decision. We're not trying to move them one way or the other, that would be everybody's option as to whether they take it or not. We’re waiting to hear exactly when the teachers are going to be able to get the vaccine.

How have the teachers adapted to new technology that has been added this year? When we got all of our

When we got all of our equipment, we had to train our teachers. They've retooled everything that they do in the classroom. They had to relearn how to teach kids both virtually and in person. We’ve added a lot of technology. We just go with the teachers as they find things that make their lives easier. We've implemented new sources and new digital curriculum and made that available to all the teachers. One of the things that I've been impressed with is how well the teachers have worked together as they learn new things and get through this. As they learn, they go and share with the others up and down the hallways.

In terms of technology, is there anything specific that stands out that has been able to be accomplished because of it?

We've got devices in the hands of everyone third grade and above. We're trying to work our way down to the lower grades but It's difficult to do. Even when we get the technology, getting the younger students to understand exactly how to make it function at home when there's no teacher there to help can be a challenge, but I think we are pretty fortunate that we have as many devices as we have. The state has also offered the CARES Act Hotspot Grant for anyone that doesn’t have internet access at home so long as they qualify under federal guidelines. We offer free internet hotspot devices to those families.

What else should people know in regard to Watonga schools?

I would just like to say how much I appreciate our community and school board being supportive of these decisions that we're having to make. It weighs heavily on us in our decision making when we have to decide to go virtual and keep kids at home. We know the difficulties that puts on a parent who had planned on their child being in class. Suddenly they have to scramble for daycare or some sort of a plan for their child. I really do appreciate that our community has been very flexible, very willing to work with us, and has shown us a lot of grace with this. When we started, we had a lot of technology issues. People were getting frustrated up here with the technology. It doesn't always work the way that it's intended to, and I know that's been a difficulty, but with our community, our parents have been very supportive through all those difficulties.