AWSP Blog

Rolling up in front of Liberty High School in Spangle, Washington was not like the traditional experience of which I was accustomed. For decades, if you pulled into any typical high school parking lot, you’d find cars parked everywhere and a busy scene filled with students moving about socializing in small groups. Not today. It was eerily quiet. Instead I found a half-full parking lot, void of typical activity. What I knew however was that Liberty High School opened in a hybrid model and that students were definitely on campus, but only half of them. I also knew that Principal Aaron Fletcher, a 12 year veteran principal (22 years in district), was somewhere inside principaling. What I didn’t know exactly was what “principaling” meant in our current COVID reality.

Eatonville School District students and teachers were met with multiple challenges on the first day of digital instruction as we launched a new school year in a Distance Learning model. Multiple power outages were noted district-wide due to strong winds, powerful fires created unhealthy smoke, and technology issues raged on. In spite of the variety of challenges, all Eatonville School District students, staff, and parents persevered and overcame these issues.

Many thoughts ran through my mind when we found out this summer that our kids would be starting school virtually. While it didn't feel like we had control over much of the situation, we had control over one thing in particular - the space in which they would learn. It was time to make space! Making space. It's something that each and every one of us who has any role or part in education has had to do in the midst of the pandemic. Making space, both physically and mentally, is exactly what school leaders have been doing these past several months.