School Board acknowledges devotion of teachers, staff with unexpected gift

||| FROM AYN CARRILLO-GAILEY, ORCAS SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR ||| 

With deep respect and gratitude, I am writing on behalf of the Orcas Island School District Board to acknowledge the extraordinary—our teachers, administrators, and all school staff—and announce what we hope will be an empowering gift for all school staff.

During the onslaught and the height of the pandemic, we asked teachers to completely reimagine their approach to education—often with no training or time to prepare—to teach online. For many, it was a rough transition. I think it was a teacher in an NPR interview who described it as feeling like “we’re building the plane while we’re flying it.” Last year, along with other staff, they had to then experiment with hybrid teaching (online and in-person) while providing tech support and mental health support for many of our students.

This fall, as the Omicron and Delta variant reignited fear across the country, we asked all employees to return to school, and work in classrooms with 20 to 30 kids. We did so at a time when many of us weren’t comfortable even leaving our homes, attending a book club, or being in a small group, masked or unmasked, because of the health risk. Our staff did so because they knew how important it was for our kids to be back in school.

After another year of uncertainty, schools are still living in the shadow of the pandemic. With in-person learning, teachers, counselors, administrators, nurses, and maintenance staff have additional responsibilities, such as sanitizing classrooms, making sure children follow school safety protocols, COVID testing, and keeping track of students who have had to quarantine.

Our school team has shown resilience and commitment, often doing so with great leadership and innovation (Hello, Camp Orkila Days) toward ensuring that learning never stops and that no kid is left behind. It is because of that resilience and commitment and community-minded spirit that we are celebrating our teachers, administrators and staff with a one-time stipend of $1,000 each, a small token of our gratitude for the central role they have played, and continue to play, in responding to and recovering from this pandemic.

We know there might be critics out there who will say the spend is too big—at a time when schools are underfunded by the state, why not use the money to fix the potholes in our parking lot or buy new books? First, anyone who wants to help with those things, please email me. We would love your help. But know, too, we can act with confidence on this matter because our superintendent and our administrators have been fiscally responsible through COVID. More importantly, we believe schools are about investing in people. Investing in teachers and staff is investing in our island kids and investing in our kids is investing in the community.

We hope to see some of those stipends trickle down to our Eastsound businesses (home repairs, ice cream, books, groceries, you name it) or to our beloved non-profits. The truth is, whether you have a child in our school district or not, their health, joyfulness, and quality of education affects you and our entire community. You see, one day, they may be the person helping you get a loan at the bank, running your favorite festival or non-profit, serving you at a restaurant, filling your prescriptions, building your house, teaching your grandkids, or representing you at the county or state level.

So, we hope you will join us in celebrating our extraordinary school community and support our action because it supports the people who support our community.