Quincy High School principal reflects on long, ongoing school year

QUINCY — Even though it was cut short with an unexpected intermission, it has been a long school year at Quincy High School.

At the beginning of the school year, a student had posed with what turned out to be a fake firearm and posted a threat to social media, causing a day of police frenzy and two expulsions. In late March, an irrigation canal breached and flooded the school’s parking lot.

But, of course, the flood didn’t cause quite the stir it might have, as the building was empty due to the biggest unexpected turn of the year: the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, and the state mandated school closures that came as a result.

And while schools across the region have similarly shuttered their doors, Quincy High School has faced the additional challenge of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus within its walls.

The county’s first case, a Quincy man in his 80s who later died in a Wenatchee hospital, had attended a community production at the high school’s theater. The school would soon report that first a staff member and then later at least two students had contracted the virus.

When that second student tested positive, it was safe to assume that all students and staff had come into contact with someone with the virus, Principal Marcus Pimpleton wrote on March 24 to the high school community.

“By the time we’re talking about multiple students, there’s probably 20 to 40 kids in each one of their classes, and you’re looking at half the school with just two kids who have possibly had contact,” Pimpleton said in a March 25 interview.

Out of an abundance of caution, all students and staff were to place themselves under house quarantine for 14 days since they had last been in school, enough time that they were unlikely to still be contagious if they had caught the virus. For most students, that quarantine finally ended at the beginning of April.

Then there is the ongoing challenge of educating students during the closures. Elementary school teachers have been preparing packets and take-home materials by grade level, which has been fairly successful, Pimpleton said. But for the middle school and high school students, who have multiple classes a day, the task is a little more difficult.

Some schools have moved toward online learning during the closures, but to ensure equity, all students need to have access to both the devices and internet service necessary to take part. The district has been in the process of contacting the family of every student, Pimpleton said, in order to gauge how difficult a task that might be.

“The middle school and high school teachers are beginning to have those conversations around, what sort of learning opportunities can students be participating in at home?” Pimpleton said. “And they’re considering, you know, what does that look like if we do have access to technology, and what might that look like for students who don’t?”

It’s unclear when, or if, students will be able to return to their classes this school year. Pimpleton had hoped that day might come as soon as this month, before Gov. Jay Inslee announced he would be extending his stay-at-home order through May 4. It’s unclear whether seniors, just months away from leaving the public school system forever, will be able to participate in traditional rites of passage before they make that transition.

“This is a stressful time; activities that they have been looking forward to like prom, graduation, those sorts of events, that are somewhat in limbo because we don’t know for sure when we’ll be back to school,” Pimpleton said. “But our kids also know that we are committed to salvaging as much of those traditional activities as we can, so if there is a way, we will pull those things together.”

Of course, staff are still working with seniors to make sure they are eligible for graduation, whether it occurs in person or not.

Given the outbreak and its consequences, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which oversees public schools in Washington, has given schools some flexibility on graduation requirements, Pimpleton said. The state has also mandated that students will still graduate June 19, despite weeks of missed time in the classroom.

To meet that deadline, Pimpleton said that counselors have been working tirelessly and creatively, student by student, to ensure that students remain on track to receive their diplomas — even if it ends up being sent in the mail.

It’s been a tough school year, with challenges both sadly common and entirely unexpected, and it’s not over yet. But throughout it all, Pimpleton said that he, staff and faculty have an opportunity through their actions and demeanor during this crisis to continue molding their students.

“The kids and even the other staff members are going to take our cues on how leaders are reacting to these situations,” Pimpleton said. “And I have been fortunate to have some life experiences that have allowed me to learn that, you know, you have struggle that you do the best that you can with, and things tend to work themselves out in the end.

“I just continue that and model that and our staff members model that as well.”

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.