ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ

Students returned to the classroom earlier than anticipated after Superintendent Jerry Boyd made the decision to revise the school calendar.

In response to the disaster, Washington County Schools closed from Sept. 30–Oct. 4. Then, the district observed its fall break as scheduled from Oct. 7–Oct. 11; in their original calendar, teachers would return the following Monday, Oct. 14, and students would return Thursday, Oct. 17.

However, Boyd wanted to get students back in as normal a routine as possible, so he made the call to bring both teachers and students back on that Monday.

“We need to get our students back into school, in a normal routine and just start the week in school,� Boyd said during the school board’s October meeting.

Having now been back in the classroom for more than a week, school officials are discussing the need to reinstate normalcy for students following a natural disaster like Helene.

“I really think that these kids, they thrive when they have that routine and consistency,� said Mental Health and Well-Being Supervisor Clanci Tipton. “Getting them back provided a sense of normalcy that has been lost at their home, so getting them back in that routine, I think, was key.�

School officials said that re-establishing a routine and a sense of normalcy is important for multiple reasons.

Tipton said that the familiar practice of going to school would help students feel safe again.

“Kids thrive when they know a routine,� Tipton said. “Just getting back to that routine, it's familiar to them, and everything that we're experiencing right now is unfamiliar to everybody, so it just makes them feel safe.�

Chief Student Supports Officer Jacki Wolfe said that getting students back into school was necessary in order to continue administering aid and other resources.

“It was important for us to get them back so they had the support that we could provide. We knew we had kids who were going to be displaced and not have the resources that they needed, so by us getting them back on campus, then we could start kind of assessing those needs,� Wolfe said. “The longer they stayed out of school, the more displaced we run the risk of them becoming.�

Wolfe said that in total the district had between 35–40 families who were impacted by Helene, mostly concentrated in the south side of the district at Lamar Elementary, South Central Elementary and David Crockett High School.

“We've got about 50 students now, in addition to what we started the school year with, that would be identified as homeless or in transition, because they've lost their homes,� Wolfe said.

The district’s four social workers are currently stationed at Lamar and South Central, and are working to identify businesses or community partners willing to ‘adopt’ these impacted families and provide them with long-term support.

Among other necessary recovery services is the need for increased counseling opportunities, and officials are grateful to have received additional support in this area.

Tipton said that Washington County Schools has shifted their contracted Frontier Health school-based therapists so that there can be extra staff placed at the affected schools.

Additionally, Tipton said that ETSU’s counseling department has volunteered their services, contributing several professors and graduate students to be available for students at the schools.

“(It) has been just phenomenal because that allows…ETSU to focus on those immediate needs, and (the school counselor) can focus on more of the whole population, instead of being pulled in so many directions,� Tipton said.

Tipton said that she met with faculty and administrators in the district prior to bringing students back to the classroom to offer some guidelines for making the transition.

“The biggest thing that we were pushing for them is, right now, we got to love these kids first. Make them feel safe. Academics are taking a backseat right now,� Tipton said. “Give them that security, that comfort, that reassurance that we are going to be okay, we will get through this.�

Tipton advises parents and caregivers to be aware that some younger students will not feel comfortable talking about trauma, and to be aware of signs like nightmares, changing in sleep and eating habits and withdrawing that may be indicators of a deeper issue.

Tipton advises that parents and caregivers limit social media time for their older children.

“It's everywhere. I mean, this made national news,� Tipton said. “So, we're seeing a lot of our kids that are having that vicarious trauma of, you know, they didn't lose anything, but they're just constantly seeing it and having so much exposure to it that they're starting to have some of the trauma symptoms.�

Wolfe’s advice to parents and caregivers is to alert the school if they notice that their child is struggling.

“Reach out to the school and let them know your needs, that you are seeing something,� Wolfe said. “We've got support measures in place, but we have to know a student needs it, and (parents) may see something at home before we see it at school.�

School officials’ main focus remains the safety and stability of their students, meaning, as Tipton previously mentioned, academics are taking a backseat right now.

Despite this, Chief Academics Officer Cindy Hayes is not currently concerned with the prospect of any academic loss.

Hayes said that the timing of the tragedy worked in the district’s favor in this regard.

Since this was the first year that the district allotted nearly two consecutive weeks for a break in the first nine weeks, Hayes said that Boyd’s decision to bring students back early and revise the calendar ultimately left students only missing two instructional days.

Hayes added that Helene occurred right at the end of the first nine weeks, meaning students’ routines were not interrupted in the middle of a quarter or semester.

Hayes also noted the importance of giving students time to process and share their trauma rather than jumping back into tests or homework–something she said that the district allotted specific time to do on the first day students returned.

“We wanted to give our students and even teachers the opportunity and time to share their experiences,� Hayes said. “We knew that coming back day one, we weren't going to just jump into assigning homework or doing tests, we just want(ed) to take the opportunity to give everybody a chance to talk.�

As the community continues to recover from Helene, Tipton, Wolfe and Hayes were all certain that bringing students back into the classroom was an essential step needed to facilitate healing and recovery in the long-term.

“We had to, from the very beginning, come to the realization that this was going to be a long term impact, that those school communities, those families, it's going to take them months (and) years to rebuild back what they had,� Wolfe said. “We're just going to have to continue to provide that social (and) emotional support for students, and realize it's not going to end next week, it may creep up a month from now, six months from now, a year from now.�

Across all schools, officials are optimistic that returning to the classroom and reinstating a routine will go far in bringing a sense of normalcy back to their students and reminding them that brighter days remain ahead.

“We all do better in routine, that's just the fact of life,� Hayes said. “It helps to not dwell on the past and to continue realizing that there is a future ahead of us and to move forward.�