Five years after COVID, what school workers recall best — and what problems linger

Five years ago, as COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic and Massachusetts descended into a state of emergency, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren were sent home.

Their learning would take place over screens until many months later when they'd reenter classrooms with orders to follow unprecedented health precautions. Masks on. Distances kept. Anxieties high.

Those fears have since tamped down. COVID is now endemic. But, school workers across the state say the lingering effects of the prolonged disruption to education reverberate today.

Walk into Chelsea High School nowadays and there is scant evidence the broader community was once considered the epicenter of the pandemic in Massachusetts. Classrooms no longer keep plastic dividers or buckets of hand sanitizer. Students cluster together to chat in the hallways.

But in late March 2020, the halls were eerily quiet. Assistant Facilities Director Frank Henry recalls not only the pervasive sense of “uncertainty,” but also learning to navigate a new role. Before the pandemic, one of his main responsibilities was to keep school buildings open. When they closed, Henry and his colleagues pivoted to a whole new set of tasks.

They passed Chromebooks to parents through car windows. They later laid down strips of tape along staircases to command the flow of traffic so students could socially distance.

They even became temporary pet-caretakers.

“We found out, maybe the second week into the pandemic, that some of the classrooms had aquariums with fish and turtles in them,” Henry said. As some of the only on-site people, they fed the turtles and changed out tank water. (All the animals survived.)

Chelsea Operations Assistant Kim Geraci took charge of meal distribution. Staff stood outdoors and handed out grab-and-go lunches to students across the city. Geraci said a constant stream of ambulances sped by.

Geraci, who lost two family members to the pandemic, said she most appreciates how the school community banded together amid immense fear and grief.

“Not one person said that this is out of my job description," she said. "We just all did what we needed to do, because it was all for the kids.”

From a facilities standpoint, Frank Henry said operations are “back to normal.” But he thinks there now exists an even greater respect and closeness between school and city officials because of what they went through.

Ellen Wingard remembers the day Salem Public Schools sent students home. School administrators cut the day short and scrambled to make sure every student got home safely. But many kids felt isolated, she added.

“The social demands at home are very different than the social demands at school,” said Wingard, the executive director of student support services.

She laments what kids missed out on: field trips, classroom projects and even time on the playground. Now, she sees how severely students were impacted by those lost opportunities. She notices many students lack foundational social-emotional skills like how to negotiate conflict or deal with frustration. Today, that manifests in classroom behavior and struggles with mental health.

“​​Certainly, we've seen an increase in the number of kids with symptoms of anxiety,” she said. “We're seeing much higher risk behavior from much younger children.”

That includes vaping and substance use, fighting, self-harm and suicidal ideation, she added.

“We're seeing much higher risk behavior from much younger children.”

Ellen Wingard

Since the pandemic, Wingard said the district has tried to prioritize students' social and emotional well-being while also adding new ways — often with adventures outside the classroom — to help them feel immersed in what they're learning.

But one of the biggest pushes is more foundational: getting kids to show up.

For many families, Wingard said, the pandemic left the impression that school is “optional.” In the 2021-2022 school year, chronic absenteeism spiked to 34%. The rate has since dropped to 20% as of last year, but Wingard said attendance remains a challenge.

“Trying to get kids to school and trying to get families to understand that kids need to be in school has been tremendously difficult,” she said.

Greg MacPhee taught high school English-language learners in Lynn during the pandemic. He said he created hundreds of pages of enrichment packets to send home with students when schools shut down. At that time, he said, the district didn’t have the resources to give all the kids Chromebooks.

When the district finally did get the technology, MacPhee said his days were spent teaching to a lot of camera-off Zoom squares.

“I know schools were part of the problem,” he said, referring to pandemic-era online learning. “Your entire school day, six and a half, seven hours, is looking at this screen. I don't think that was ultimately healthy for most students.”

“Your entire school day, six and a half, seven hours, is looking at this screen. I don't think that was ultimately healthy for most students.”

Greg MacPhee

When Lynn Public Schools eventually began reopening in 2021, students were kept six feet apart. They couldn’t participate in group work or easily connect with their friends. Much of the work during this time took place on their laptops.

“One of the things that struck me after that school year was, wow, maybe I should have used more paper,” he said. “Maybe I should have just told students, 'OK, close the laptops. Get away from the screens.' ”

MacPhee said he believes the reliance on technology during COVID has made it tougher for students today to put aside their cellphones, reconnect with classmates and focus on their work.

So in his current classroom at Boston Adult Technical Academy, he is trying to carry the lesson forward. Cellphones are off limits. Classwork often takes place in groups.  He makes a real effort to ensure his lessons are interactive and social.

He said he hopes that with a little support his students can find a better balance between the virtual world and the real one.