Friday March 29th, 2024 7:32AM

2021 calls for flexibility, creativity on educational fronts

Creativity and flexibility are the way two local education leaders have described their process of keeping a college and a school district charging through to a new year and new opportunities.

At Brenau University in Gainesville, the historic women's college, it's satellite campuses, and the online programs learned to accommodate students differently in 2020, mostly thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. And with no final word yet on the virus yet, President Anne Skleder said they plan to keep it creative for 2021

"We're all challenged to meet the needs of students," said Skleder. "Faculty and staff, we all have to think about 'how can we make sure that we are constantly coming up with creative ways to do things to make sure our students can learn.' That's never going to stop and it's only going to be more challenging as the economic impact hits some students harder and harder, and it's going to be a while before that changes."

Skleder said she was proud of how they had worked to get creative not just around the coronavirus pandemic, but also with the economic outlook of the school and making their education more affordable while maintaining quality.

Another thing Skleder was proud of was the healthcare element of the university, especially with alumni on the front lines.

"We have 4,000-plus alumna in the health field and most of them are still working, because out health programs are not that historic, so I am very, very proud of the healthcare and first responders we've turned out in nursing, in occupational therapy, physical therapy, in psychology - which is going to be incredibly important post COVID - and then moving forward I'll be really proud of our PA graduates.

"And I just wanted to thank the Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers as well. We work with the counselors and teachers in the recruitment process to make sure we get their transcripts and all of that. I cannot imagine how challenging it is for K-12 teachers and counselors right now. Changing formats on a dime, working with young children virtually. It's one thing to have a 20-year-old on the other end of the Zoom, it's another thing to have a 7-year-old on the end of the Zoom."

But, Skleder said they will accommodate however possible, and sometimes that's remote learning. And, she was glad Brenau wasn't going at accommodations alone.

"I think the future is bright and strong for education in the region. I think we have excellent partner institutions and we all do something different, which is good."

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Hall County Schools Superintendent Will Schofield has spent the pandemic time in 2020 working on keeping the school district at the ready, and he said there were no plans to lighten up just because it's a new year.

"We fully anticipate probably significantly worse numbers as we move forward. So we will continue to refine our digital resources. Flexibility will be the word that we continue to talk about. Putting safety number one, but also realizing that nothing can replace face to face, in-person instruction, so doing everything we can to keep kids in school when it's possible."

Schofield also said they began looking more closely at a "whole child" educational approach as their students sometimes struggled to adapt to what 2020 threw at them.

"We're going forward with the realization that a significant number of our students and the adults that work in our school district, and even our community, suffer from varying degrees of... mental health challenges," said Schofield. "And so we have made that a cornerstone beginning this last year, we spent a year putting a program together, the pilot continues to grow."

That includes making sure students don't feel isolated, alone or otherwise separate from their peers.

"One of the things that we learned when everything shut down in March was the absolute necessity, particularly for older students, of being able to continue to get together with their teams and to exercise and to have that 'esprit de corps,'" said Schofield. "Although we may have to look radically different at the way we compete with other teams, continuing to give those middle and high school teams that opportunity to get together to again, participate in physical exercise to spend time together to compete with others, when they can, we certainly will be looking at that. "

The school district doesn't have plans to slow down to accommodate whatever of 2020 lingers in the new year. The agri-business program is still in process, with 51 acres of land in North Hall County primed for students to learn tools of the local trades.

"We anticipate having a working cattle and genetics operation, a local operation, a honeybee operation, and the honeybee and the cattle (programs) to be released, at least a limited release, by March of next year," Schofield said. Younger students will be able to attend field trips at the farm and older students can work at the center. 

  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Local/State News
  • Associated Tags: education, Will Schofield, Hall County School District, Brenau University , coronavirus pandemic, 2021, Anne Skleder
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