Written by Sydney Weber
In response to a letter and interview with senior, Helena Dowler, the newspaper interviewed the principal of East Ridge High School, Mr. James Smokrovich, about topics such as distance learning and student concerns.
In Helena Dowler’s letter to the administration on January 11th, she expressed her concerns about distance learning’s effects on students and the underwhelming amount of support from teachers and administrators. In his interview, Smokrovich acknowledges the concerns of Helena and her fellow students and describes responses and changes the administration is enacting. “One of the things we did is we started a weekly video that is being sent out,” Smokrovich says as he outlines changes that administrators are making. Along with the weekly videos, administration has planned graduation, prom, and social events like game nights. “The biggest thing is communicating,” states Mr. Smokrovich. In response to Helena Dowler’s letter, the administration has created more opportunities for students to interact with peers and adults and upped communication and attempts to reach out.
COVID has forced administration to make many radical changes concerning school with new hybrid and distance learning structures. One of the big changes with distance learning was the creation of a new class system, with a switch from trimesters to “hexmesters” – a term coined by Assistant Principal Mr. Jason Gonnion – and from six classes per day for students to three classes per day. Smokrovich states that the reasoning behind this change was that “A group got together and we wanted to lessen the workload from what we heard from the spring.” While administration changed the class schedule in hopes of lessening the workload, Smokrovich acknowledges that many students do not agree with this new schedule. He states that going back to a normal class schedule would be very difficult during this time and that administrators have made changes after hearing concerns, such as telling teachers to cut down on content.
Looking toward the future, administration is working with student ambassadors and the student council to plan social events and activities. While administration is creating events to reach out and engage students, they are also working to be more communicative with students. In addition, administration is also working to get more students back to in-person learning. Early elementary students are currently being phased back into in-person classes and districts are planning on phasing in more grades. While it would take a while to phase in students up to high school, a possible return to in-person instruction could be on the table for high school students before the 2020-2021 school year ends. Administrators are working on proposals for a return to in-person learning for high school, although it depends on COVID levels and state policies.
In the third and final part of this series, we will discuss these topics, concerns, and more with a teacher at East Ridge High School.