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On the first day of school at Academia del Pueblo, hugging was out, but cheering, elbow kicks, and clapping were in.
“We’ll learn about aerial hugging later,” said one teacher as she wrapped herself in a hug to demonstrate.
School protocols have changed since last year, but while students don’t require masks, most wore one. School staff hope this will be the first year of full face-to-face learning since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Principal Frank Lomeli said he was a “hugging headmaster” and although he complained about not being able to hug and high-five his students, he was excited to see the students reconnect through face-to-face lessons.
“My goal for these kids today is to see my smile through the mask,” he said.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman visited the school Wednesday morning to meet with educators about how their schools are doing as they try to reclaim what was lost during the pandemic.
“As our students start the new school year, we make sure our teachers are tracking their academics and determining which students need additional intervention and support and service,” said Hoffman. “We have also used federal funds for COVID Recovery and Relief for additional assistance.”
Lomeli said his school’s enrollment had dropped from nearly 400 students to 325 and it was affected by the shortage of school bus drivers in Arizona. He said funding for emergency training from the federal government helped protect the school, make necessary upgrades, and purchase personal protective equipment.
The Academia del Pueblo monitors the health and safety recommendations as the landscape continues to change.
“Like everyone else, as this pandemic builds, we wonder what this means for personal teaching?” said Lomeli. “But we learned a lot last year. This year we are very personal, but if we have to go back to virtual learning, we are ready to do so. “
“Schools should never have been put in this position”
The Delta variant is the most dominant strain of the virus in Arizona and nationwide today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their masking guidelines to recommend vaccinated individuals return to wearing masks indoors, prompting some schools to change their health and safety protocols.
As school districts across Phoenix vote to require masks for students and staff indoors, in violation of an Arizona law that bans schools from requiring masking, Hoffman said schools are in a difficult position that aren’t should have happened.
“Schools should never have been put in this position where lawmakers and the governor have stripped our school principals of local authority to make the decisions they need to make to keep their communities safe,” Hoffman told The Arizona Republic.
The Phoenix Union High School District announced Friday that masks would be required, prompting three other counties in the area to follow suit. Governor Doug Ducey called the mandate “unenforceable,” and a Metro Tech High School teacher is suing the district.
Hoffman said she wasn’t surprised to see the lawsuit, saying the decision to ban masking was a rash and did not take into account recommendations from public health experts.
She said she will be watching the lawsuit closely to see how it turns out.
“Ultimately, I think it was reckless and short-sighted for the legislature to implement this policy without real public comment because these decisions were made in the 12th century.
Share public health information with families
Hoffman says she’s working to figure out which schools need extra support after a year of uncertainty, falling enrollments and loss of learning.
The Academia del Pueblo’s student body is 94% Latinos. Latinos across the country were disproportionately affected by the pandemic in terms of infection rates, deaths and job losses. While the 85004 zip code, where Academia del Pueblo is located, is nearly 89% vaccinated with at least one dose, many college students come from areas like South Phoenix and Maryvale struggling to get 50% of people with at least one dose to achieve.
The South Phoenix and Maryvale zip codes were targeted by an Arizona Department of Health program to remove systemic barriers to vaccination such as transportation and access to culturally literate public health information.
At Academia del Pueblo, health information is sent to parents through many different communication channels.
“We did our best to spread the word about vaccines and when we got new information we sent it to the whole school community,” said Lomeli. “Some in our community are okay with 100% email, while others rely on phone calls and emails. Whatever we had to do to make sure parents got this weekly information, we did.”
Hoffman said she has connected with organizations working with colored communities and meets regularly with advisory groups that focus on the educational needs of marginalized communities. The advisory groups help with federal dollar allocation.
“Recently … we re-convened our Just and Effective Schools Task Force and we added more participants to make sure we were really well represented,” she said. “We always make sure that we have participants from different backgrounds. … We have really tried everything in our power to make sure we have the stakeholders we need to help us allocate our government decommissioning dollars (guide decision-making).
Hoffman said she is also committed to bridging the digital divide, figuring out what additional support schools need, and allocating aid and resources to improve math skills. She also stressed the need for resources for the mental health of students, saying that managing trauma will become an urgent problem following the isolation of the pandemic.
Megan Taros covers South Phoenix for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip? You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @megataros. Your reporting is supported by Report for America and a grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation.
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