Overcrowding post-COVID

COVID Coverage Class sizes a challenge to the safe return to school

By Jonah Paulsene

The return to in-person school this year had many students hesitantly optimistic. For more than half the students in the school, it would be their first step in the halls of MTHS. Even the returning junior class had only spent a little over half a year in the building before the pandemic began in March of 2020. Students were eager to walk the halls with their friends and seemed content with never logging into another Zoom call again.

However, the first day of school was much more hectic and confusing than anticipated. Teachers had classes that were packed with students. Some students even had classes with no teachers. These problems, along with the fact that many were walking the halls of MTHS for the first time, led to a stressful first day.

The AP U.S. Government and Politics class was the most severe case of overcrowded classrooms. Despite having 30 physical seats, the class was enrolled with 46 students on the first day of school. This led to many students being forced to stand or sit on the floor, with some even being outside of the classroom.

George Dremousis, the AP U.S. Government teacher, was stressed about squeezing so many students into the small room and decided to take his class to a bigger area.

“After a couple days of that nonsense we decided to take them outside of the counseling office in that outdoor amphitheater,” Dremousis said. “It was okay, but it wasn’t a perfect solution.”

The fresh air was a nice change from the crowded classroom, but anticipating the cold and harsh weather of the fall, Dremousis knew he couldn’t teach in the amphitheater forever and later requested to teach the class inside the school theater.

“I just said I’ll just volunteer to teach it in the theater,” Dremousis said. “We do a lot of lecture style teaching anyhow, so for me it’s not that big of a change.”

Now, Dremousis teaches AP Government in the theater, similar to a small college class, with the current enrollment of 42 students. In spite of the frustrating first few days, Dremousis still commends the administration for their hard work.

“I think the administration has done a good job,” Dremousis said. “There’s no perfect playbook for handling a pandemic, so they’ve done the best they can.”

David Assink, the Math Department chair, said he believes that scheduling issues are not simply about classes with too many students, but classes that have too few students as well.

“Overall, there were a lot of issues, not just with big classes, but classes not being balanced,” Assink said. “They ended up putting 20 kids in my class and 36 in Mrs. LeeHenning’s class.”

These problems surrounding class balancing are due to the pandemic and how it hindered the typical process that the administration and counselors use to organize the schedules and meet the needs of the roughly 1400 students who attend MTHS.

In a normal school year, a master schedule is made in June, and the counselors have time during the end of the previous school year and in August to make final adjustments and clean up any rough spots they may find. However, the pandemic delayed the creation of a master schedule until August, leaving a tight window to finalize classes and get schedules to students by Sept. 7.

“We didn’t have that grace period this school year. It was a scramble to make things work,” Bradley Serka, one of the counselors, said.

The unpredictable nature of the pandemic caused a lack of knowledge on what this school year would even look like or how many students would be attending in person if possible, consequently making scheduling for the 2021-2022 school year especially difficult for the counselors.

“The counselors worked very, very hard to balance classes out. They did an amazing job,” Principal Greg Schellenberg said.

Due to the lack of knowledge on how to return to in-person school safely, some scheduling changes were made after the start of the school year once teachers and administration were able to observe conflicts with the original model and make necessary adjustments. The most major of these adjustments was the shift to a three lunch schedule.

“We had 100 to 150 students eating outside, but with cold and wet weather coming we knew moving all those students inside wasn’t going to be very feasible,” Schellenberg said.

While the adaptation is necessary for the safety of everyone in the building, the decision occurred a few weeks into the school year had a negative impact on many students.

“The addition of a third lunch time frame in late September has disrupted this time for many students and lost some of their social connections,” Serka said.

From a teacher’s perspective, there are additional issues that originate from the independence of the isolated learning of last year. Teachers must take into account that some students are at different levels than others depending on their work and the large responsibility placed on students to maintain their education.

“In math, we know that Mathway [a mathsolving website] was the number one student last year,” Assink said.

As a result of the lack of a baseline for various classes, many teachers have started the school year slower than previous years in an attempt to make the return more manageable for students.

The transition back to in-person school has been inevitably difficult for everyone at MTHS and required a tremendous amount of effort from the administration and staff to try and reopen school safely under the guidelines of Gov. Jay Inslee. Despite all of the complications involved with going in-person, many are enjoying this year significantly more than last year’s distance learning. Ignoring the anxiety involved with contact tracing and the spread of the virus, the return to in-person school has been beneficial for students and teachers. Not only are students more engaged in learning again, but this year has also shown everyone just how isolated they’ve all been in the past year and a half. Most students also seem to be appreciating the social aspect of school as well, especially being able to hang out with friends in-person again.

This negligence to the social aspect of school as highlighted by the pandemic has made students and staff reconsider the functions of school in addition to passing on the academics.

“We have been focusing way too much on the academic side of school,” Assink said. “But school is not just about learning academics. We need to encourage students to have fun again at school.”

While the return to in-person school has been stressful, students and staff alike have found that some changes brought forth by the pandemic have proved beneficial. For example, the use of digital hall passes has made many students and staff wonder why it was ever a physical item everyone had to touch. The revised schedule is much easier to remember now and includes advisory every day as a period for help, or simply just work time.

The improved sanitation in classrooms is beneficial for everyone in the building. These improvements not only help reduce spread of the virus, but contribute to a better school experience for the school community.

Overall, while there is still a palpable amount of anxiety and stress being in school with over 1400 individuals during a pandemic, there is also a bittersweet relief in its own way.

“Any day that we have that is not in remote learning is a good day,” Schellenberg said. HGeorge Dremousis taught one of his history classes outside in the amphitheater to accommodate all 46 students earlier this year. The class now meets in the theater. CAROLINE SHYNSHYN | HAWKEYE

“We have been focusing way too much on the academic side of school. But school is not just about learning academics. We need to encourage students to have fun again at school.” David Assink MATH DEPARTMENT CHAIR