Superintendents weigh in on the academic year

Looking back on a year of disrupted learning, two area school superintendents shared their observations and ideas on how things are going and what’s in the future.

Craig Schlichting, superintendent at Triton in Dodge Center, is upbeat about how things are progressing in his district. “The pandemic has impacted education in many ways, and I am hopeful that we will have a number of positive takeaways from this past year,” he said. “Our professionals have done a great job of accommodating all of the varying needs of our students.” 

He said he believes that the unusual circumstances provided educators with once-in-a-lifetime experiences to evaluate the way students are educated and to examine what can impact student performance.

All Triton students did a month of entirely distance learning between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, and the middle and high school students were on a hybrid schedule from September to March, Schlichting said. Elementary students started out full time, and when they went to a hybrid schedule, the students were still able to be in school four days a week.

Schlichting has concerns for the overall well-being of students.

“I think that the pandemic has provided evidence of the importance of physical, social, and emotional well-being for our students in order for them to be able to perform in learning,” he observed.

Statewide and nationally, concerns have been voiced about learning deficits due to difficult learning conditions. In Schlichting’s opinion, there is insufficient data to make a claim that students aren’t where they need to be. And due to the learning challenges educators and students have faced, students may even be ahead, due to the new and changing conditions they’ve had to adapt to.

“I believe in some ways we have better-prepared students for life after high school,” he commented.  “They’ve had to learn a number of skills that I believe will transfer beyond their formal education at Triton.” Schlichting has observed Triton teachers doing a great job of assessing student learning and adjusting to student needs on a more personal level than they could in the past, and ultimately, that could benefit students in the long run.

Mark Matuska, superintendent at Kasson-Mantorville schools, is confident his students are making good progress this year, and a very important factor that he points out is this: “Our kindergarten through sixth grade students were in class every day this year, unless parents chose flex learning.”

Students in grades seven to twelve had about five months of hybrid learning, two days in and two days out, but if classrooms could handle additional students with appropriate distancing, students were able to attend on their off day. Students who were at risk or in Special Education were invited to come to school daily.

            “Distance Learning, or what we called Flex Learning, was only for parents and children who wished not to attend school in the hybrid or in-person model,” Matuska said.

There were no state assessments last year, Matuska said, and with the upcoming spring assessments, the district will have more information on students’ proficiency and growth, which will give them the information they need to focus on future actions. In terms of students being behind where they are expected to be, “I don’t want to call it learning loss,” he explained, “because it’s not really a loss, it’s just that they haven’t had the opportunity to learn what they need to learn.”

And Matuska plans on giving them those opportunities. He is more concerned about how kids are doing socially and emotionally. “We’ve had a lot of challenges in the last year, and we want our students not only academically successful, but also mentally and emotionally healthy.”