The Benefit of the Doubt

We return from the Thanksgiving holiday to three and a half weeks of Relationships and Learning in the St. Johnsbury School. In a typical school year, this would be challenging at best. The time between Thanksgiving and the Winter Holiday Break is hard, without a pandemic. Add the unpredictability of our current public health circumstances, and it feels staggering. 

Make no mistake about it, we are up to the task. We have teachers ready for emergency remote days, prepared to teach an entire class or less, depending on the number of close contacts. We have paraeducators who are prepared to substitute and forgo their typical responsibilities to keep our building open. Foodservice employees are covering for vacant positions, and facilities personnel scrambling to ensure we have a clean building without an entire staff. We have administrative support staff covering desks they have never covered before. Our principals are struggling to visit classrooms regularly. Instead, they are making line lists for contact tracing. Our nurses are not nursing; they spend their days on the phones, calling parents, listening to frustrations and anger at our daily circumstances. 

I do not share this for people to feel sorry for us. I share this for perspective. The next three and a half weeks will undoubtedly have difficult moments. There will be misunderstandings, missteps, and miscommunications. We will make mistakes. Please know we are doing the absolute best we can given the less-than-ideal circumstances. 

Our district has already started the test to stay program. We have hosted one vaccine clinic before Thanksgiving and will have a follow-up on Thursday, December 9. Voluntary surveillance testing continues to occur weekly. We are doing absolutely everything that we can to keep our school open while our state struggles to contain the Delta variant. 

At the same time, we understand that our families and the St. Johnsbury community are doing everything possible to keep up with this ever-changing school year. We know these first few months have not been easy on our families. It's also reasonable to think that there is a higher than average level of stress, anxiety, and emotional anticipation going into these next three and a half weeks for families. 

Our focus this year is on Relationships and Learning. The only way our students will learn and grow is if they love coming to school. For some, this is their first time coming to school regularly in more than two years. To love coming to school, our students need to feel safe, welcome, and included. 

We are all doing our best. Our students, their families, and all our employees. All of us. 

We all deserve the benefit of the doubt.