The CGS Upper School could have benefitted from waiting slightly longer to return students to campus

By Catcher Kemmerer ‘24

As the United States nears the one-year anniversary of the beginning of its experiences in earnest with the COVID-19 pandemic, emotions over school reopenings have never run higher. Unfortunately, when one analyzes the debate over school reopenings, no obvious answer reveals itself.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Pacific Northwest region has maintained some of the most stringent and extensive COVID-19 restrictions in the nation, including some of the United States’ most prolonged school closures. Similarly, the region has experienced some of the lowest average COVID-19 case levels in the country. 

Earlier in the pandemic, many unknowns abounded, including those surrounding schools. As the pandemic has progressed, more data has become available, much of which has suggested that schools which implement strict COVID-19 conscious rules most often do not experience significant internal spread or drive community spread.

“If you think about some of the other things that got partisanized (during the pandemic)… there really isn’t a scientific ‘on the one hand, and on the other hand,’” observed physician Robert Wachter, while discussing school reopenings with economist Emily Oster, on the pandemic-focused podcast “In the Bubble: From the Frontlines.” “This… is really tricky… if you’re in debating club in high school, you’re probably equally comfortable taking either side on this one because there are compelling arguments on both sides.”

But Catlin Gabel School (CGS), with a robust virtual curriculum, can afford to be careful. In interviews with CatlinSpeak, Head of CGS Upper School Aline-Garcia Rubio and English and humanities teacher Tamara Pellicier both noted that the first goal of hybrid learning is building interpersonal relationships while being mindful of students’ needs.

“I think it’s really important for students to return to campus for relationships, for community, for health,” Garcia-Rubio remarked. “The guidance that [teachers] are receiving is that we need to attend to students’ well-being first, and that once students are well, then we attend to everything else.”

Pellicier agreed that students’ well-being has been prioritized in conversations about the return to campus.

“The administration seems to think that it’s very important for people to get back on campus, especially for adolescents who have been isolated from their peer groups and from each other,” Pellicier said. “The aim is not so much focusing on academics as much as interpersonal connection. I think that is a worthy focus… I don’t know whether that’s going to actually happen… [but] I would guess yes.”

A CGS student, who requested anonymity, reflected these uncertainties. “I am quite excited about hybrid learning,” they wrote. “Although I still don't really understand how it's going to work and whether or not it will actually benefit my learning.”

In another CatlinSpeak interview, Global Online Academy (GOA) instructor and Catlin Gabel School teacher Jim Wysocki highlighted hybrid learning not as urgent, but important.

“A school like Catlin Gabel is built on community,” he noted. “Not just the academic program we’ve created. And it’s a little bit harder to develop and build that kind of community when we’re not actually in the same space, or at least mostly in the same space on a regular basis.”

In short, the academic aspects of hybrid learning will arise when students have adjusted socially and emotionally to the new learning environment. But there are safer ways to produce interpersonal connection - CGS’s mandatory on-campus opportunities, for instance - and even quality academic collaboration. Hybrid learning is expected to be both a technological and social challenge in itself; teachers have promised not to leave behind students choosing to remain at home, academically or socially. I am not, at present, one of those students, but for those who want or need to stay remote, their decision unquestionably should not damage their learning experiences.

“[Some people] will be online all the time,” Pellicier agreed. “And some people will be in and out, and so it’s really important that they still feel like they’re a part of our community, so I’ll be figuring out, how do we all check in together? And how do we find ways that we can work together, even though the technology can be a little frustrating?”

Nonetheless, on March 5, Oregon Governor Kate Brown recently announced executive action ordering all public schools to offer universal access to in-person learning for grades six through twelve, on or before the week of April 19, 2021. In an email sent earlier the same day from the office of the director of the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) to all superintendents, principals, and charter and private school leaders residing within the state, Brown also encouraged private and charter schools to follow suit.

“Whether or not public schools should return to the classroom this year is no longer up for discussion,” Governor Brown said in an accompanying statement. “The science and data is clear, schools can return to in-person instruction with a very low risk of COVID-19 transmission, particularly with a vaccinated workforce. As conditions across the state merit a return to in-person instruction, I could not be more relieved that we have reached a point in this pandemic when Oregon’s children can finally relinquish some of the immense burdens they have so bravely borne over this past year.”

Garcia-Rubio largely supported Brown’s cause. “I think of teenagers as being an age group that is at low risk, even if they contract COVID-19,” she said.

But she acknowledged other issues. “However, teenagers and employees of this school live with other people who may have different circumstances… that’s the piece that gives me pause.”

It nonetheless feels as though this somewhat dismisses the harm COVID-19 is still capable of causing in adolescents. With new variants and a rapidly growing vaccine distribution program, the data Brown references could change again, for better or worse. Additionally, some CGS students noted that with the school year so close to an end, and with routines so well established, they did not express excitement about returning to campus.

“I’m not that excited for hybrid learning,” said one student, who requested anonymity. “It's almost the end of the school year, and I feel like it will be an awkward transition. Also, when we do go back to hybrid learning, it won’t be the same as regular school. You still need to socially distance.”

“I'm not particularly excited for hybrid learning because it will be for such a short time as I will be going off onto senior projects,” echoed a senior, who also requested anonymity. “Since it's so short, I'm not sure that is really worthwhile.”

Again, the school debate never yields a clear answer. When I hear someone with less reservations than myself speak about returning to campus, I often hear them echoing my own thoughts. Our methods of interpreting and acting on the issue comprise the difference between our ideas on hybrid learning.

On the other hand, COVID-19 cases continue to decline, providing a strong basis for returning to hybrid learning. But this is precisely why I argue the CGS Upper School could reopen slightly later. Local case numbers are beginning to plateau, and a potential fourth wave of cases still looms if Oregonians do not remain vigilant in their COVID-19 safety precautions. However, in a few weeks’ time, we should much more confidently know the forward trajectory of the remainder of the pandemic, including that of the variants and other unknowns; with students and teachers so well-prepared for hybrid learning, we could begin shortly after. CGS and the state government must ensure they do not bungle their exceptional handling of the pandemic at the last moment. If I were to fall ill with COVID-19, I may feel as though the lifestyle I have lost this past year to protect myself and others partially passed in vain.

I’m also an athlete, and the unknowns associated with lingering COVID-19 complications despite asymptomatic illness frighten me. It would distress me to see my ability to take part in the athletics I cherish - which give me the opportunity to breathe and step aside from my academics - endangered. Consider Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, who was sidelined for several months and greatly stymied by myocarditis - heart inflammation - stemming from his bout with COVID-19. Though the risk of transmission at a school such as CGS may be low, the consequences of illness are immense.

Granted, Governor Brown encourages private schools to offer on-campus learning in the near future, so CGS would, by remaining all-virtual much longer, stand in opposition to the recommendations of local authorities. But the even difference between beginning hybrid learning on April 19 and beginning hybrid learning early in the month could be resounding. COVID-19 wise, it would allow us to re-evaluate the situation even better than at any other point in the pandemic. I would strongly advocate CGS not remain closed the entire school year, as there is a good chance that students struggling academically or socially will find it that much harder to regain their confidence with an even further extended time away from school.

Another CGS student, who requested anonymity, reflected that.

“I was… nervous about returning to campus, and I’ve decided not to do any on-campus opportunities because of that,” the student said. “But I think the benefits of in-person learning are really important, and I trust the Catlin Gabel community to stay safe. Seeing places like bars stay open while I have to go to school from my room has been really hard, and online school is really exhausting socially, so I’m looking forward to hybrid learning!”

President Joe Biden has promised all willing adults should be vaccinated by May; community spread should have drastically decreased by then, especially if there is limited vaccine hesitancy. Meanwhile, CGS’s attentive, thorough transition plan has offered students and teachers plenty of opportunities to prepare for the new challenges of hybrid learning; by Spring Break, most students and teachers should feel confident in CGS’s hybrid learning plan. But with that preparedness, we could head into the month of April ready to tackle the final stages of all-virtual learning, and ready to transition into hybrid learning as soon as it becomes clear what the rest of the pandemic should look like, which should be soon.

Most models have seen a measurable fourth wave likely, but as public tolerance for stringent safety measures has become more prolonged than expected, they have seen the wave as rapidly decreasing in potency. But if one should occur - especially one powered by the B117 variant first found in the U.K. - administrative decisions could become trickier.

Nonetheless, CGS - like private schools in general - possesses an extraordinary amount of resources when compared to the American education system at large. CGS can - and intends to - use these resources to keep the school as safe as possible, executing further preventative measures such as ventilation upgrades and frequent student and staff testing. The State of Oregon further bolstered confidence in safe school reopenings when it, albeit controversially, placed teachers ahead of seniors in the line for a COVID-19 vaccine.

“Many more private schools… have been open, and a lot of them have been open in places where the district public schools are not,” Oster remarked on the matter. “My sense is, by and large, [that’s] gone extremely well… and some of that is resources, potentially.”

“Ultimately, I would say you as a student are empowered to maintain your distance, to wear your mask well, to keep your hands clean,” Garcia-Rubio powerfully added. “And I find that when I am empowered, I am in control of my circumstances, I can be much more at peace.”

Wysocki noted the benefits of a preparation week within a hybrid learning environment; which CGS has scheduled for the week before Spring Break.

“That gives us some data to see, how did this work?” he noted. How are our systems working? What’s not working? And then we’ve got a couple weeks, we’ve got Spring Break, and we’ve got the remote week after Spring Break to massage the things that weren’t working, so when we are back… fully hybrid, then we’ll have ironed out some of the kinks.”

Though that is helpful, I don’t imagine losing that week would take much away altogether, especially considering the benefits of waiting slightly longer.

Besides, external factors occur beyond those which arise within hybrid or entirely in-person learning environments. Summit High School in Bend opened for one week before 43 students fell ill after a party; its return to campus was scarred by the poor decision-making of students and families.

Do I not trust CGS students, then? I do, but the CGS student, staff and parent body is far from immune to mistakes. I would not expect something to the degree of Summit High School’s oversights, but our school, though small, is big enough for sizable blunders.

I have observed small-scale mistakes at CGS before. I noticed issues with fall school soccer training, when most epidemiologists remained unsure whether outdoor contact sports - in which the participants used masks correctly - could be executed safely, but many players and coaches rushed into contact drills regardless. I even discerned it in the one February on-campus opportunity I could attend, in which my “social outdoors” group flocked inside due to rainy weather. These experiences have sometimes led me to worry CGS may not follow through on all the preventative measures it intends to. These are human mistakes, but CGS is clearly far from immune to them.

Variants

The relatively new COVID-19 variants, especially the B117 variant first discovered in the U.K., the 501Y.V2 variant first discovered in South Africa, and the 20J/501Y.V3 variant first discovered in the State of Amazonas in Brazil, continue to yield little specific information as to their respective rates of transmission and effects. However, it is generally known that the B117 variant has proven more transmissible than the original two COVID-19 strains; that the 501Y.V2 variant is more vaccine-resistant than the original strains; and that the 20J/501Y.V3 variant is especially adept at reinfecting non-vaccinated people.

I am increasingly worried about the B117 variant, which is expected to take a stronghold over Oregon - and the U.S. as a whole - in the coming weeks and has transformed the manner in which the U.K. has handled its COVID-19 pandemic. As President Biden’s administration prepared to uniformly push for schools to reopen, schools across Europe and the U.K. were closing again - including in areas where local authorities had kept them open at all costs in the autumn and through Europe’s third wave of new cases - over renewed concerns returns to campus could, in fact, result in internal spread and drive community spread.

The U.K., in particular, has remained on lockdown for an especially extended time now, but its caseloads, though decreasing, remain somewhat high. Even more worrisome, according to Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C., British children ages five through twelve had the highest weighted prevalence in COVID-19 case numbers of any age group in the U.K. in February. Governor Brown’s remarkably high confidence in the clarity of “science and data” on school reopenings undoubtedly could decline rapidly depending on the local prevalence of the B117 variant.

In the aforementioned March 5 email, the ODE director allowed for such possibilities. “We have the tools, the knowledge, and the right leaders… and we know how to pivot when conditions change,” the email read.

Additionally, a new version of the B117 variant - homegrown in Oregon - was recently found by a team led by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) geneticist Brian O’Roak. It sported a mutation carried by the 501Y.V2 variant which could protect it from the immunization response triggered by the two mRNA vaccines manufactured by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer Inc. and Moderna, Inc. Though it is, at present, one case, if such a variant were to take Oregon by storm, CGS and the state government would need to seriously rethink return to campus plans, either to intensify their rigidity, or to delay them altogether.

Students harboring various needs

Garcia-Rubio acknowledged that at every school, a spectrum of students’ needs manifests itself.

“It’s a bell curve,” she observed. “There are students at one…  side of the bell curve who are perfectly content staying remotely… They might actually be doing better… not having to transport themselves or not having to be exposed to certain things, and they're going to be fine staying at home. I think the swath of the middle of the students are going to benefit from being at school because human beings are social beings and what has been co-opted by the pandemic is our social interaction, and I think we all benefit from socialization… And then there’s a subset of students on the other end of the spectrum, who really desperately and urgently… need to be at school and be around people in  their same age group and they need to get out of their homes and start moving.”

This is unquestionably true, and I understand how heart-wrenching it would be to leave struggling students in an all-virtual environment, even for a few additional weeks. Consider Governor Brown, for instance; she cited increased child suicide concerns to justify her controversial decision to vaccinate teachers ahead of seniors in Oregon.

With this in mind, I would generally agree that, at this point in the pandemic, it remains best to keep elementary schools and most middle schools open; but many students within CGS Upper School, including me, cannot receive an inoculation for many more months, but stand within an age group that can and often does experience COVID-19 similarly to young adults despite the relatively low risk of transmission arising from CGS’s resources and precautionary measures. Fortunately, Pfizer Inc.’s studies of age groups younger than 16 have progressed deeply, quickly.

Though it is an inefficient fact, the decision whether or not to reopen schools remains and will continue to be situational. CGS relies heavily on learning which one can only experience in a classroom setting, but its robust virtual program and the numerous remaining COVID-19 dangers and uncertainties associated with a return to campus lead me to conclude that CGS may have benefitted from allowing for a few more weeks of all-virtual learning.

“It’s a tough thing,” Wysocki acknowledged. “A lot of the reports coming out of the CDC is that schools should be safe, given all of the things that we do to try and make sure that they'll remain safe… but it’s still a scary thing.”

I am not a senior, nor do I feel I am struggling as a result of virtual learning. I face no personal reason to rush back into a school building in the near future, but I recognize that is not a universal privilege. I acknowledge that it may be easier for me to claim CGS would do well remaining virtual for an additional few weeks than for others to do the same. There are people to meet, friends to make, important projects to complete, and much more which will be gained, I feel sure, in a hybrid learning environment.

CGS has, at this time, followed through on much of its comprehensive hybrid learning plan, or will do so shortly. At this time, I would not advise it change course, with Oregon overperforming on recent COVID-19 models, and with the disruption any sudden announcement to postpone students’ return to campus would cause. Nonetheless, if it could have executed its plan differently, I would have strongly recommended it consider returning students to campus slightly later than it will. In the present, I urge the school to follow through on its commitment to bring along the students who chose to remain fully remote - as I nearly did - on the educational journey that only CGS can provide. I hope that as we better understand the trajectory of the full remainder of the pandemic, they may feel comfortable returning to a campus so many cherish.

Student quotations were lightly edited for clarity and grammar.