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PUBLISHER'S WORD
Above and beyond
Y
ou’d be hard pressed to find a single educator, administrator, parent or student who wants a replay of the 2020-21 school year. With anxieties about the COVID pandemic swirling, every aspect of our education system was tossed upside down. In some districts, students went months without seeing their classmates. Parents had to juggle their jobs with their children’s new hybrid or remote school schedules. Teachers had to double up their lesson plans to ensure they were providing a valuable educational experience both for those in the classroom and for those watching from home. And administrators were responsible for leaving no one behind, in a year when many students didn’t even darken the door of a school building. In this most difficult year, administrators like Frazer Middle School Principal Latrina Brumfield had to completely re-envision what the classroom experience would be in a remote and hybrid education model. And it wasn’t only the teaching experience that worried Syracuse City Schools administrators. It was also the health and wellbeing of their students. In addition to classroom teaching, for many Frazer students, school is where they can be assured that they will receive nutritious meals and positive activities. “COVID was the unknown,” said Brumfield, the subject of our August cover story. “We were all learning about it at the same time. But overall, I feel like our teachers and staff were super flexible. They were resilient and able to take the changes and do what’s best for our students.” A lot of the challenge of maintaining a close relationship with students during the pandemic rested on the shoulders of teachers like Stevi Wilson, a Spanish teacher in the East Syracuse-Minoa district, who saw first-hand the difficulties many students faced being walled off from their classmates for an extended period of time. “I’ve learned over the years that I’m so much more than a Spanish teacher,” Wilson told Syracuse Woman Magazine. “My classroom is always open for kids. I truly believe you can make a difference in a kid’s life by witnessing them and hearing them and supporting them through a difficult time, especially last year with COVID. These kids need more than just two-plus-two is four and ‘Hola, cómo estás?’” Everyone can agree that this past school year was far from perfect, but in Central New York we are blessed with thousands of dedicated and caring educators who went above and beyond to ensure their students had a valuable educational experience despite the many challenges the pandemic created. Several of their stories are told in this edition. And now, with renewed hope, we look forward to the 2021-22 school year – a year in which schools are expected to open to full capacity and activities will resemble pre-pandemic norms. Where last year, we entered the school year with trepidation, we now arrive at the fall with anticipation. What a difference a year makes.
David Tyler AUGUST 2021
SyracuseWomanMag.com contact@syracusewomanmag.com
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David Tyler dtyler@eaglenewsonline.com
DESIGN
Andrea Reeves
PHOTOGRAPHERS Farah Jadran Alice G. Patterson Sophie Proe David Tyler
CONTRIBUTORS
Iris Buczkowski Alyssa Dearborn Chiara Giannuzzi Farah Jadran
Jason Klaiber Heather Shannon Emma Vallelunga
Cover photo by Alice G. Patterson
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