By Kathleen Huynh
A little over 90% of MHS students are engaged in distance learning, Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said in a Zoom interview. However, fewer than 10% are not regularly engaged and 8-9% of students have Ds or Fs in half of their classes, Jordan added.
The amount of students who have three or more Fs is about double the normal amount that is expected at this time during a normal school year, Principal Francis Rojas said in a Zoom interview. Nonetheless, teachers are putting in the effort to support these students, Rojas added.
“I don’t want to compare last year to this year. It’s apples and oranges,” Rojas said. “The learning conditions this year are very different than the learning conditions a year ago. Some of the 8% are just students who are truant. Some of those students would have done the same thing whether we’re in person or not. I really have asked our teachers to take a look at who is attending your class everyday or at least most of the time are engaged but are still failing your class and what can you as a teacher do to support that student in turning things around.”
Additionally, learning hubs have been set up at the San José City College extension to support disengaged students, Rojas said. There are still limited spots available for students whose home environments are not well suited for distance learning, he added.
“We have three or four classrooms over at the extension that’s supervised,” Rojas said. “It’s supervised by an adult staff member, but you’re still doing distance learning. It’s just a safe, quiet, internet-ready place that you can study and there’s an adult there if you need help. They may be able to help you, but it’s not like tutoring; it’s just about access.”
As for the 90% of MHS students who are doing well, the general community feedback for distance learning experience is positive, Rojas said. According to Rojas, parents are amazed at the dedication and work they see from teachers.
“I have not had one parent complaint saying that we’ve watered down learning,” Rojas said. “It’s almost equivalent to the learning that we were doing despite the challenges with the distance. We could even lean more toward that we might be overdoing, making it a little too challenging, but definitely, the learning is happening.”
At a recent staff meeting, Rojas gave several suggestions to help overworked teachers who in turn, overwork students, Rojas said. Some tips include not lecturing for the entire 105-minute class period and setting time expectations to help teachers and students gauge how feasible an assignment is, Rojas added.
“If you’re a teacher and you’re overworked, your students are probably feeling overworked as well,” Rojas said. “I gave them two pages worth of suggested remedies. [For example,] try to have synchronous learning and then assign work after [,but] make sure it doesn’t exceed the 105 minutes for that day. We know that that’s not possible, especially for AP classes where you have to cover more material to get to where the test is, but just be very mindful of how much work you’re giving because you’re not the student’s only teacher.”
If a student is feeling overworked or overwhelmed, they should always talk to their teachers first, Rojas said. Being honest and facing the situation head-on will help both parties as the student can communicate their needs, and teachers can receive feedback for what they need to adjust, Rojas continued.
“The worst thing [a student] can do is not communicate that you need help,” Rojas said. “Your first person to talk to is your teacher, and your next step would be your counselor, and if you still need help, then go to your assistant principal.”
In regards to events such as Comcast and PG&E outages, everyone—parents, students, and teachers — should stay calm and be empathetic towards one another, Rojas said. The district’s attendance system has been adjusted to account for these events, Rojas added.
“I think what’s hard is we always strive for perfection and making things work [in] the most efficient [way possible], but in reality, if that’s going to be the cause of stress or people giving up, it’s not worth it,” Rojas said. “I think empathy, patience, and flexibility is key during those times, and that’s what we’re providing. So when those things happen, don’t freak out. It’s the reality of things; just communicate, be flexible, and then we’ll move on.”
Plans for the second semester are not set, but MHS will definitely be finishing off this semester remotely, Rojas said. The first step in drafting plans for the second semester is to resurvey families and teachers to determine their stance on whether or not they want to continue distance learning, Rojas added.
“We’ve already had three meetings with the union leaders and district leadership,” Rojas said. “I attend those meetings as well to represent the high school level so we all agree that the survey’s the next step. I recommended that we not think about a plan district-wide but really look at it at a secondary and elementary level. The elementary principals come up with something that will work for the elementary schools, but then for the middle schools and high school, since our credentialing is really different and students go from period to period, that’s going to be very different as well, so we’ll be coming up with a different plan there.”
Safety protocols set by the county are the priority, but they do not dictate how instruction is provided, Rojas said. Another major factor of creating plans for the second semester is juggling the needs of teachers, students, and county guidelines, Rojas added.
“What’s really hard for the high school level is, I’m calling it ‘the numbers game,’” Rojas said. “You have 3,200 students. Some of them may not want to come on campus by family choice; some of them may need to be on campus. Then we also have our teachers. Each of our teachers have to be specifically credentialed for their content area. We also have to look at the teachers’ ability to teach during COVID. We do have teachers who are at an at-risk age level or may have at-risk people in their home. The numbers game is, if these numbers don’t match up, not going to work at all. The last part of the numbers is since teenagers are more adult-sized, how many teenagers can we actually fit safely in a classroom? We believe it’s actually closer to the number 12 rather than the number 15. If our classes have 36 students in each class maximum, that means group A and B won’t work because that’s 18, and that’s not safe inside, so we’re really taking all those things into consideration.”
For English teacher Audrey Yang, the most difficult part of distance learning has been building a classroom community, Yang said in a Google Meet interview. However, even if students and staff are permitted to go back to school, the county’s COVID restrictions will still make the experience challenging, Yang continued.
“When we talk about going back to school, the important thing to remember is that even if we go back to a sort of normal situation, the parameters in place would make that in-person experience very different than what we remember school being like,” Yang said. “A concern for me [is] going back still wouldn’t solve the issue of building a community because usually in a regular setting, I like to have my kids in groups. That would not be possible in a hybrid situation. Everyone would come to class, [but] they would all still be isolated, six feet away from each other. They wouldn’t be able to turn and talk. They’d be on their Chromebooks because we wouldn’t want to be handing papers around either. I can definitely see a challenge is trying to figure out ways to build that community with all those parameters in place and whether or not it’s possible with the COVID guidelines in place.”
Physics teacher Charles Schletzbaum has several health issues that make returning to school a stressful possibility, Schletzbaum said in a Zoom interview. Despite being skeptical of returning, he misses seeing students and is prepared for whatever happens next, Schletzbaum added.
“I have about five or six different things that would theoretically make it bad for me to be in contact with too many students for extended periods [of time]. I’m a little paranoid about it, but, I mean, I desperately miss people,” Schletzbaum said. “Depending on where we stay and depending on participation, there might be a situation where I could have people come over the course of a month and do an activity on schedule—just not that close to me.”
MHS and Milpitas Unified School District have adjusted incredibly well these past few months, Jordan said. Staff, students, and teachers alike have shown immense effort to make the most out of this situation, she added.
“I’m just incredibly amazed at the remarkable way that all of our team has just put in so much time,” Jordan said. “So many [teachers] didn’t even have a summer because they were busy planning because they want to do their best for you guys. On the flip side, I’m so amazed at the way some of our students, like at MHS, you’ve created these different ways of engaging virtually. You’ve created different clubs that you didn’t have before, you’ve created different types of organizations that provide services and connections for people. Milpitas is just really a special place, and Milpitas Unified School District is really a ‘Culture of We.’”