Clackamas ESD’s mission is to lead, serve and innovate for learning. This mission became even more critical when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person learning beginning in spring 2020. Overnight everything changed, and Clackamas ESD was there to help the 10 school districts in Clackamas County meet the new and evolving needs of their students and families. Below are a few examples of how we have supported our districts from the early days of the pandemic through today, over a year later.
Sifting and clarifying information
The COVID-19 pandemic launched an immediate new set of requirements and guidelines for schools. And as the pandemic evolved, so did the guidelines – often weekly, and sometimes daily. Clackamas ESD kept our districts informed about what they truly needed to know. Our staff was in constant touch with multiple state and regional decision makers, including the Oregon Department of Education and county public health officials, working to get the latest information to share with our local schools. We facilitated many opportunities for those decision makers to hear directly from regional superintendents and other school leaders about pressing concerns.
Supporting distance learning
In 2020 and 2021, we worked hard to help our partners build new skill sets and find new tools to keep students engaged and learning.
Zoom. Google Classroom. Google Suite for Educators. These are all tools most of us weren’t experts in using before 2020. Now they all have an important place in our distance learning toolbox. Switching so quickly from in-person learning to other options was difficult. Teachers, students, support staff and families all needed help. Throughout the pandemic, we focused on supporting educators in selecting and getting the most out of online learning tools. We also curated distance learning resources that we continually updated to help our education partners cut through the clutter and secure key useful information.
Prepping for “back to school”
Because of all of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic from its onset in spring of 2020 through today, school districts put together multiple plans that encompassed three options: in-person learning, distance learning, and a hybrid option using both in-person and distance models. As state guidance was modified throughout the past year, we realized our districts needed support keeping up with the changes and planning for quick switches among these options. We took on the role of regional coordinator, serving as a liaison to the state decision makers and facilitating dozens of collaborative sessions for our district partners to brainstorm together, compare plans and manage key deadlines.
PPE supply pipeline and vaccine assistance
We partnered with the Oregon Department of Education to acquire and distribute more than 500,000 face masks and 10,000 face shields to all 10 of our partner school districts at no cost – a roughly $1.6 million value.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, face coverings and other personal protective equipment were in short supply. As districts prepared for various reopening scenarios in the fall, real questions remained about whether schools would have enough PPE to operate in-person learning safely.
In early September, Clackamas ESD partnered with the Oregon Department of Education to acquire and distribute more than 500,000 face masks and 10,000 face shields to all 10 of our partner school districts at no cost – a roughly $1.6 million value.
Clackamas ESD was a coordinating partner in a major regional effort to vaccinate educators throughout the Portland metropolitan area. Thanks to the leadership of one of our regional district superintendents, Bob Stewart of Gladstone, tri-county ESDs, school districts and major health care providers came together in a matter of a few short weeks to create and implement a centralized process for vaccinating educators at the Oregon Convention Center. Over less than two months in early 2021, tens of thousands of teachers and other school and district staff received COVID-19 vaccinations through this successful partnership.
Serving our migrant community
All of our migrant student programs are supported through a federal Title III grant we successfully secured and renewed.
In spring 2020, we contacted all 1,300 youth in our migrant/bilingual programs to do wellness checks and offer support services. We continued our partnership with the Oregon Child Development Coalition of Multnomah County to provide emergency child care to migrant children while their parents were working. We switched to a synchronous distance learning model for migrant children grades 1 through 6 enrolled in summer school, and survey results from families show we successfully kept students engaged despite lack of an “in-person” classroom experience.
Keeping learning personal for special education students in the COVID environment
“Music has helped us create stronger partnerships between home and school, and really engaged our families,” said Teresa Copeland, LEEP coordinator.
Our special education team prides itself on the caring, supportive environment they create for our students. So the shutdown of in-person learning in spring 2020 created immediate challenges – and opportunities to find new ways to serve learners. We moved quickly, connecting personally with every family to determine how we could make “distance learning” work for them. We created many lessons we could deliver online, but also assembled and hand-delivered hundreds of packets of learning materials to students’ homes. More than ever, we focused on ensuring our students and their families felt recognized and cared for during a highly stressful time.
Music is a powerful strategy for engagement, and the distance learning environment allowed us to use music creatively. Every Friday, students enrolled in our LEEP program eagerly go online for a special treat – a music session with Steve Schroeder. Steve created an online music platform that gives students and their families this weekly opportunity to hear and help make music, giving everyone a lift.
Child care resource and referral
Over the past year, we doubled our existing efforts to connect regional school districts with child care resources during the pandemic, and helped providers navigate complex emergency child care rules to allow them to continue serving families.
Supporting our youngest learners and their families during the pandemic
When the pandemic hit, we worked closely with our school district partners to help them navigate emergency child care.
When face-to-face interactions with children and families became impossible because of the pandemic, we got creative. In spring 2020, our team shifted quickly to providing virtual services. Our Head Start to Success program and our early intervention/early childhood special education programs took to the internet and old-fashioned print materials to continue serving families. We conducted online evaluations of children with their families. We also turned other in-person services, such as speech therapy, that had been provided in small groups and classrooms into online sessions with children. Our child care resource and referral team helped providers and school districts transition to delivering emergency child care, reconnected families to child care they needed, and coordinated delivery of supplies and materials.
Doubling down on technology
As the year unfolded through a series of challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic and regional wildfires prime among them, the Clackamas ESD team was front and center in rapid, expansive efforts to improve use of and access to technology for student learning.
No one could have guessed at the beginning of 2020 how vital a computer with internet access would soon become to educators working to teach and students striving to learn.
Many parts of Clackamas County are an internet desert. Even some urban areas have pockets with no digital access. With schools quickly transitioning to distance learning – and remaining there into a new school year – the digital divide became a barrier to giving every student equal learning opportunities. Clackamas ESD helped bring more partners to the table – including Clackamas County and local internet providers – to address the challenge from all directions, including securing more internet “hotspots,” expanding affordable internet connectivity in communities, and starting work on longer-term solutions to eliminate digital inequity.
In addition to improving equity in internet access, our tech team helped our partners use new features in their student information system, Synergy, that were important to success in the new distance learning environment, such as virtual class attendance tracking and the ability to document COVID symptom screening.
Creative celebrations
COVID-19 hasn’t stopped us from honoring talented students and teachers. In spring 2020, we rapidly shifted gears to turn some of our most prominent yearly events into successful “virtual” and socially distant celebrations.
Our socially distanced celebration for 2021 Regional Teacher of the Year Kate Fisher Hedeen.
Early the morning of May 19, 2020, Oregon City High School biology teacher Kate Fisher Hedeen logged in to what she thought was a routine Zoom meeting. Instead, she was surprised by Clackamas ESD Superintendent Jada Rupley, Oregon City School District Superintendent Larry Didway, and many of her colleagues and family members as she was named the 2021 Regional Teacher of the Year. Even more of her students and coworkers gathered outside her home – sporting face coverings appropriate for the times – to cheer her well-deserved honor. We look forward to celebrating our 2022 Regional Teacher of the Year in a similarly festive yet safe fashion in May of 2021.
In 2020 and 2021, we hosted a virtual version of our annual Regional Art Show and Awards Ceremony. Each year, more than 100 students from across Clackamas County had the opportunity to show off their hard work and unique points of view. “It has been a light for my students,” says Heather Anderson, visual arts teacher at Baker Prairie Middle School in Canby.
A pandemic wasn’t going to stop us from celebrating our 2020 LEEP graduates!
When COVID-19 prevented traditional graduation ceremonies, we found new ways to honor these students and their families marking these program completion milestones. In June 2020, our Heron Creek team went home to home, offering balloons, treats and other fun swag to all of our graduates. LEEP students and their families paraded through our CESD headquarters parking lot in their vehicles, serenaded by music, cheers and well wishes. Many families got into the act by decorating their cars to honor their graduates. We look forward to finding safe and festive ways to congratulate our 2021 graduates this June.
