So, as they try to rest up during what’s left of summer vacation, Dr. Glass and his team have a triple threat of challenges to look forward to tackling. Incidentally, this list of three was also Dr. Glass’ answer to the question of what excites him about the future of his community.

Johnson recalls encouraging educators to try everything they could get their hands on for distance learning: “My job is to remove barriers.” By gathering data from teachers, Rocklin will be deciding which tools will be implemented as long-term solutions.

In February 2020, Dr. Gustavo Balderas was named the 2020 AASA National Superintendent of the Year for his excellence in district leadership. And about one month later, in March 2020, everything about public education changed.

For Earnest Winston, the novelty of taking on the superintendent position was compounded by the fact that he did so in 2020; he also had to tackle the novel coronavirus.

Dr. Hinojosa describes the process of collecting constituents and stakeholders, incorporating the health community, the workforce commission, and eventually the State to make transformations at his Dallas ISD.

“So here we are, we’ve taken a brick and mortar institution that has wildly not changed in the past 150 years, and we were tasked with changing it within weeks to meet the demands of our students and families.”

"Not everything that was happening in the past was great. We weren’t reaching every child! Not every child had a voice in a classroom. When we look at what can happen in the future, there are lessons we can learn from this."

The Paper team reached out to Marlon Styles, Jr., Superintendent of Middletown City Schools in Ohio, after he gave a virtual presentation to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

"The job of the learning community or school system is to create the conditions for each learner to thrive, given where they are in their learning, regardless of age or grade."

Cary Johnson is the Educational Services Director at Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD), in California. With the end of the school year approaching, Mr. Johnson offered the Paper team a snapshot of his new challenges, responsibilities, and future considerations.

“The hallmark of this team and our efforts has been flexibility,” said Deputy Superintendent Dr. Barker of Shelby County. “That’s going to be our watchword going forward as we look at the Fall and look at the 2020 school year.”

The vision statement of RUSD instruction is to “expand use of and access to technology in order to increase the availability of resources and teaching and learning options for students, teachers, and the community,” and they have done just that in light of recent circumstances.

Since the onset of building closures, Evan’s team has done their best to maintain their school pride, annual traditions, as well as an incredible 80-100% student engagement rate in distance learning.

"This is not a time to cut funding; this is a time to invest in our children so that we can provide a personalized education for wherever the kids are to meet the goals for all kids."

The Paper team reached out to Dr. Antonio Shelton, principal of Santa Monica High School. He talked to us about everything from his flooded email inbox, how a local Chick-fil-A is giving back to his school, and how distance learning made for a different type of senioritis in his 12th graders.

The Paper team interviewed the tech-savvy Laura Lavery twice, first in March and then in June, to get a moving picture of how she has been helping students and fellow educators. In our conversations, she gave us the THEN and the NOW of distance learning.

The Paper Team took a peek into how network administrators have had to put in considerable effort to ensure that learning can continue, and students still feel a sense of connection with their peers and teachers.

"I think sometimes people figure they've got time, and that maybe the next generation of leadership will come into the district and they'll move things forward. Now I think people are going to be faced with the decision."

Since they first began distance learning, the leadership at Fairfax County Public Schools has spent considerable time reflecting on and learning from their initial struggles. Superintendent Scott generously shared the key lessons from his district’s experience.

“They have lost out on so many milestones that the rest of us hold so dearly in our memories. Many are asking if the work is even worth it. I’ve said, ‘Yes, it’s worth it, and you all are going to graduate!’”

For the past few years, the leadership team at Henderson-Hopkins has been making strides in their school improvement plan. "And then, on March 12th at four o’clock, we found out that we weren’t coming back to school.” What happened next?