High School band director Ray Rickert said there is a lot going on behind the scenes at the schools that most people will never know about – like the hours of meetings, webinars and collaboration with other teachers around the state to share ideas. “So many meetings,” said Rickert. “I can’t tell you how many hours.”
Rickert, who is also the teachers’ union representative, said despite the challenges, he believes TK teachers are ready and just want to see kids back in school.
“This is what we do. No matter what we need to do, we’ll be ready and we’re going to get it done,” said Rickert. “We are approaching it in a positive way. For me with band kids, it’s not even going to be close to normal. We’re going to have to have virtual concerts and splitting the band up into smaller class sizes. But it’s what we have to do for now and we’re going to make it work for the kids.”
TK Technology Director John Dombrowski shook his head and sighed when asked how this return to school has been different than previous years. “Nothing has been the same,” he said. “We’ve collected and prepared 3,000 Chromebooks and are assigning them to students. We’ve never done that before. They’ve all had to be wiped off, cleaned, organized and ready to go.”
This year every TK student will be assigned a device. Younger students will have iPads they will leave in their classrooms. All other students will receive their own Chromebooks. Students will be responsible for taking their Chromebooks to classes and home with them at night.
In addition, the tech department has helped set up classrooms and teacher technology, worked to ready the online enrollments, TKVS, adding new software for in-class video making for teachers, and new software to assist with the food service meal orders – to name a few.
Food Service Director Jessica Endres said her department has completely changed. “I’ve scrapped all the menus. We’re getting a complete new software system for ordering and we’ll be delivering meals to all the classrooms,” she said. “This year is so much more work than what we have to do in a normal back-to-school year.”
The maintenance crews have been hard at work making sure they have a stockpile of supplies like hand sanitizers, paper towels, and cleaning items. During the summer they have been deep cleaning every room and workspace in all the buildings. They’ve turned off all the drinking fountains leaving only the bottle filling stations operational and last week finished marking all the hallways in all the schools with directional travel areas and social distancing space stickers.
The transportation department has been forced to revamp bus routes with many more families providing their own transportation. Hand sanitizing stations have also been added to all buses. Transportation Director Chuck Walker joined the TK team last January so this is his first time getting ready for back to school at TK.
All the preparation and work comes with still many unknowns and uncertainties. Rickert said teachers realize they have to be prepared to teach remotely at any time if the district is forced to close again. “It takes a lot more work, a lot more preparation,” Rickert said. “We don’t know if or when we’ll have to go remote, but we have to be ready.”
Superintendent Robert Blitchok said he hopes everyone recognizes the need for patience and a bit of grace as the school year starts. “I’m confident we will be able to handle any necessary modifications to our plans. We’ve not only prepared for back to school in-person, but we’ve created a whole new virtual school. And we have to be prepared for remote learning at the same time.”
Blitchok said he’s extremely proud of the TK team effort. “I can’t begin to articulate how proud I am of everyone at TK Schools. Everyone has come together with a positive attitude and from day one have never said we can’t do that. They’ve just figured out a way to get it done. They’ve put in a lot of summer hours in conferences and meetings and planning,” he said. “We have extremely dedicated teachers, administrators, support personnel – everyone – at TK. We also have a very supportive board of education who we can’t thank enough. Those board members have also put in hours and hours in helping decide what’s best for our students. We are all doing our best to make this very unusual year a positive experience for students,” said Blitchok.
The TK community also deserves thanks, Blitchok said. “We’ve received so much support and many encouraging words. It really helps us keep a positive attitude and know we are all working together and together we are TK Strong.”