Change Agent Case Analysis: COVID-19 1

Change Agent Case Analysis: COVID-19

Amy Trainer

Towson University

ISTC 702- Educational Leadership and Technology

Dr. Caples

September 18, 2022

 Change Agent Case Analysis: COVID-19 2

Part 1: Executive Summary

School name, location, size, number of teachers, numbers of administrators

 Huntingtown High School

 Huntingtown, Maryland

 Approximately 1,300 students- Grades 9-12

 Approximately 154 staff members.

 Administrators: 5

Description of the Building

 Built and opened in 2004 by Scheibel Construction and Delmar Architects.

 208,000 square feet.

 3 levels

 2 story media center.

 1 main gym

 1 auxiliary gym

 1 dance studio

 1 weight room

 7 athletic fields

 8 tennis courts

 Built in less than 2 years.

 Only major renovations occurred a few years ago where the entry archways were

replaced due to support issues.

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Description of the community population, relative SES, number of FARMS

 Community population:

o 75.8% white

o 9.6% black

o 7.2% two or more races

o 1.6% Asian

o .01% American Indian/Alaska Native

o 0% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

o Farms: 11%

 Academic Achievement levels—meeting standards

o MCAP Scores all above district state averages

o See figure 1.

o Ranked 1,391 in the nation.

o Ranked 32nd in Maryland

o Ranked 1st in Calvert County

o Ranked 42nd in DC, Metro High Schools

o Graduation Rate: >95%

o 88 students took 3 or more AP exams in 2022.

o 65% of students take 1 or more AP classes during the school year.

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Figure 1

Perceived technology experience of staff

Our technology range is very big considering the age and experience of staff members.

Some staff members consider themselves to be efficient in technology, while others are not very

comfortable. We have teachers who have emersed themselves in technology, while another

teacher didn’t know the trackpad on her/his laptop was the mouse.

Access to technology to students and staff

Technology is very well accessed at our school. Currently, grades 3-12 all have laptops

they can take to and from school and all teachers have laptops. Teachers are also given docking

stations at their desks to have 2 monitors, which is great when it comes to grading, emails, etc.

There are certain things we have to teach the students when it comes to technology in the

classroom to make them more comfortable and understanding. For example, I always provide an

email etiquette lesson to students at the beginning of the year. This is a great lesson and most
 Change Agent Case Analysis: COVID-19 5

students are able to properly email teachers. I also work with students on learning new platforms

and how to work in classic platforms such as Microsoft Word. I want to ensure students are able

to access all their technology tools properly.

Part 2: COVID-19—Your story of how things changed and how you responded to the

change

Disclaimer: Majority of this information is coming from memory

Information Path

They day I received the notification of schools closing was March 12th. I was coaching

my tennis team, when a student ran over and said schools would be closed. She received a

remind message from a teacher. At that point, all of us pulled out our phones and saw that Gov.

Larry Hogan was making an announcement that schools would be closed for two weeks

beginning on March 14th making our last day March 13th. Of course, we all thought it would

only be two weeks, but it was sad to never return that school year.

I never decided if the closure was communicated well because Hogan made an

announcement before our schools could say anything. On the 13th, we had a staff meeting after

school where our principal explained what central office had decided as far as learning was

concerned for the next two weeks. They decided we would make up 1 week by taking away

spring break and would add the other week to the end of the school year.

Immediate Plan

The initial plan, as stated before, was to take away a week from spring break and add the

other days to the end of the school year in order to make up for the two weeks. Students and staff

were told to take home laptops, books, and anything else they may need if the closures were
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longer than expected. There was not true plan because we all assumed we would be back in two

weeks.

As it turns out, that was the theme for the rest of the school year an all summer. There

was no plan and we all felt very lost as teachers. This lack of plan did not come from building

administrators, but from central office. On March 13th, we received this email from our

superintendent:

“We are trying to anticipate the questions staff may have with regard to the state
required school closure. 
It is important to understand that this closure is designed to maintain social
distance and reduce large crowds in confined spaces.  It should help to slow down the
transmission of COVID-19 and protect our most vulnerable citizens, so that we do not
overwhelm our health care facilities.  Even though we will be doing extra cleaning
during this break, that is not the main reason schools have been closed. 
 
We are treating these 10 days as we would snow days.  10 and 11  month
employees are off now for 2 weeks.  Enjoy.   At this time we will be expected to
make these days up.  Spring Break will likely be the first to go.  At this point, we will
make-up all other days at the end of the school year. Decisions about make-up days
will be finalized pending further guidance from MSDE.  Please plan accordingly.   12
month employees are working with access to their available leave.   Offices will be
open.
 
We ask teachers to encourage students to continue working on projects,
assignments, and readings during the time that we are off.  Unless a long-term project
was assigned previously, work cannot be required or graded during this time.  We
certainly encourage students to access Schoology and Online Resources to support
continuous learning.
 
We ask you to clean off your desk and be sure to take what you need with you at
the end of the day.  If you forget something and need to retrieve any items from
school, you can do that on Monday, March 16.  After Monday, we ask that only 12-
month staff report to the buildings.   Building Service Workers will all move to day
shift. 

Pay days will remain the same.  We encourage staff to check email periodically
for system updates. We will make every effort to use social media, but we will also
use system email to communicate

We will make adjustments to the grade reporting schedule.

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The following links to the CDC and the Calvert County Health Department give
the most up-to-date, accurate information about COVID-19
-https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/php/riskassessment.html and www.calve
rthealth.org”

We also received this email on March18th from our principal, which was extremely

helpful in regard to the unknown:

“Team
I had another conference call today with the executive team and CCPS principals.
A plan is being formulated to conduct online lessons if we are out of school longer than
the initial two weeks. A School messenger email and robo call were sent out to all
Huntingtown families today asking them to contact us if they do not have Wi-Fi or a
device on which students could complete assignments. We are at, the fact finding stage
and nothing is confirmed. So don’t panic ,if you fear the online possibility and don’t go
crazy preparing online lessons ,until you receive more direction. I would look at possible
resources should we go this route but do not give students any mandatory assignments at
this time. Assignments they are working on now cannot be graded unless they are
finishing up a previous assignment or completing makeup work. It is permissable to stay
in contact with students  and to encourage them to stay focused and up to speed, however
please do not do more that that. I will continue to update you as new information is made
available.

Please take care of yourselves and do not take any chances , practice social
distancing and follow the CDC recommendations. I miss you guys and hope we are able
to get back together soon. Feel free to email or call if you have questions.

Sincerely
Rick

Staff meeting 3/13/2020 notes

COVID-19 Staff Update –
Purpose of closure - is designed to maintain social distance and reduce large crowds in
confined spaces – No confirmed cases at this time in Calvert County

April 14 – 2-hour delay will most likely be a FULL DAY – This is our possible SAT
make-up date for our Juniors (March 25 – cancelled)

The BOE is working on report card adjustment days

Evaluation schedules will be adjusted – waiting for further guidance

Home/Hospital – All services are suspended for the 2-week period

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SPED/IEP – Timeline -waiting on MSDE

Field trips beyond the 2-week period TBD

Looking to reschedule events that were scheduled over the next 2 weeks

Spring Sports – Pending

Do not do anything with leave in EAC…Payroll is waiting directions and will take care
of it on their end  

Free/Reduced Lunch – BOE is working on ways to feed these students.  They are
working on 3 satellite type areas.  More detail to follow.( we called all FARMS students
and made deliver to those in need)

Days will be made up – starting with some Spring Break days then tacking onto the end
of the school year

All desk needs to be CLEARED of items so BSW can clean – all manipulatives need to
be out so they can be cleaned

Academics –

It’s ok for students to continue any kind of work that you have already assigned
Students should use this opportunity to make up any missing work and to study –
strongly suggest opportunities but cannot require assignments to be completed. 
Must deal with students all over the place
We don’t want to make the situation worse or to penalizing students
Please check your emails while you are away for updates
Hardships & very inconvenient
Try to stay positive – we are fortunate in many ways
 You don’t lose pay
 We have great healthcare
Don’t panic – over loss of time prior to testing- look at ways to streamline plans prior to
testing
 Don’t just dump more work on students and yourselves
 Be strategic
 Do the best you can over the situation
So many things are disappointing about this – we must keep it in perspective
Good luck the next 2 weeks, call or email if you have any questions
If you have other questions we refer you to your supervisors first who have been given
more information.  If they don’t know, they can get that info for you.”
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I found the email from my principal comforting because I felt he had our best interest and

students best interest with every email he sent through out March, April, May, and even June.

Once we realized we were not going back to school for the foreseeable future, our supervisors

provided “lessons” to be posted in Schoology for students to complete. For English, these lessons

were reading articles and answering questions. We did not meet online at all, except for any

teacher meetings on Teams, which was difficult for a lot of us because we had never used that

platform before. Fortunately, by the time June came around, we were able to have outdoor

graduations and it was a beautiful way to end the school year since almost everything was

cancelled.

Technology Integration

When we first started teaching online from April to June of 2020, there was very little

teaching and technology. Students needed to complete assignments on Schoology and email

teachers with questions. The challenge for me was the limited amount of communication with

my students and their parents/guardians. Emails can only do so much, I ended up having to call

parents and students to help them.

Going into the 2020-2021 school year, things were set up better. We all were trained in Teams

and Schoology. Fortunately, I was already well versed in Schoology so I only needed to know

how to use Teams. Teams was very challenging at first, but once I figured it out, it was simple. I

had to set alarms to take attendance though because we had to download the attendance sheets at

the end of class, rather than the beginning as if in a traditional classroom. About halfway through

the year, we were introduced to an app call Nearpod. This was the savior of online teaching.

Nearpod was a platform where you could incorporate everything you needed in one lessons.

Since I teach high school, my students were not energetic and ready to share out loud in Teams.
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Nearpod provided live discussion boards where I could see if students were following along. I

could add Power Points, quizzes, polls, and video into Nearpod for the kids. If students were

absent, I would embed the lesson in Schoology for students to access.

The absolute biggest challenge in my online classroom was the interactive piece.

Students did not have to turn on their cameras, so most days I saw circles with pictures or initials

and almost none of my students would speak out loud. I had to have students type in the chat a

lot to get some sort of engagement. I also tried break out rooms, but it was an epic failure, this is

why I was thrilled when we were given access to Nearpod.

I think the biggest inequity was when we had “snow days.” When we had snow days and

school buildings were closed, our internet café students did not have access to classroom

learning. I know other areas provided internet hot spots for families to use and I wish we had

done the same for students who did not have internet access at home or did not have strong

enough internet at home.

Leadership

My friends and I said through out the entire pandemic that we were truly blessed to have

our principal. He led our staff to a lot of success while teaching online. He also kept us in the

loop about what was happening in our district. Once he found out information, it was

immediately passed along to us. He also focused on the important aspects of online teaching and

did not micromanage us while working from home.

I did not feel like our superintendent led us well during the pandemic. Plans changed

daily, which is understood since COVID was constantly changing, but he would change plans-

based on the complaints from parents on Facebook. One example of poor leadership was when

we were sent an email stating we would not be forced to come back into work on asynchronous
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Friday’s. We could continue to work from home. The day before spring break, we received and

email from the assistant superintendent stating immediately following spring break, teachers

would be required to come in on asynchronous Friday’s.

Community Connection

Communication with parents and my school administrators was key during March-June

2020 and again during the 2020-2021 school year. Without the physical interaction with

students, there needed to be a long line of communication with parents. I sent emails out on

asynchronous days to parents with general reminders about class assignments, due dates, etc. I

would also CC my admin on those emails, so they were in the loop as well with my

communication with parents. Administration made a lot of documents that all staff could access

so that we could track students who were coming to online tutoring, were failing classes, and

when we were contacting parents. At first, it felt as though we were being micromanaged, but at

the end of the day it was beneficial in an online world.

Part 3: Evaluation—How did it go?  What changed?

Effectiveness

A lot of things went well, and I wish some things stayed in place once we returned to

mostly normal last year. I wish we were able to continue with virtual snow days, ensuring our

last day of school was set in stone. I also loved the asynchronous days. I was able to plan with

colleagues, have parent-teacher conferences, provide extra tutoring, and have all our staff and

department meetings. I never thought I would be so happy to receive s much professional

development. I truly thought mt teaching improved with asynchronous days. I also thought

having a block schedule was beneficial. With having an asynchronous day and a block schedule,
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I only had to have 2 lessons per week per class compared to now where I have to write 5 lessons

per class per week.

I overall had a great team during online teaching, making it easier to teach. We worked

well together and came up with fabulous lessons. The entire 11th grade team across the county

decided to take on a lesson plan for each week. We were all teaching the same thing, making it

easier on everyone if each school took care of one week during each quarter.

Challenges

I think my biggest challenge was getting students motivated to learn and complete tasks

while online. I didn’t know if students were really in class or not, at least not until I was able to

incorporate Nearpod in the classroom. There were some days I would call on students and they

would not answer. Sometimes I would call home during a class to tell parents their student was

not participating, and they would go and wake them up. I also remember one day where the

internet went out for the entire state, which was interesting. Internet issues were by far the

biggest issue with online learning. I had several classes where students couldn’t log in due to

internet issues. There were days I had internet issues as well and would have to teach from my

phone.

Future Steps

For the future, we need to have a plan. I hope our county has a plan for if something like

this were to happen again. Now that we know how to teach online, I think the transition would

not be as difficult as it was before. I would like for there to be more accountability for students

who are not participating in online class. I am not sure how that would be possible, other than

docking them for attendance. I also think we need to have a plan for internet access. Students

who don’t have internet at home and have to come in to school in order to learn online, is a
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disservice because the internet in our building is not reliable as well. Just last week, our internet

was down for over three hours across the entire county.

Update to Today

Right now, we are currently back to normal. Masks are optional, students don’t have to

sit 6 feet apart, we don’t have to sanitize between classes, or have plexiglass at our desks. The

only COVID related procedures in place right now is required quarantine if anyone tests positive

for COVID. Student can log in online to learn. Our school system went back to just how we were

before, which is good and bad. I wish we would adopt more policies from COVID such as virtual

snow days, or even have asynchronous breaks so that we can finish school earlier. I think we

really could improve education for students with different opportunities to learn.

Reflection

This level of change affected me greatly. At the time all of this was going on, I was

coaching tennis and went through a great state of depression knowing I had athletes who

wouldn’t receive their senior year of playing. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t just

a Huntingtown High School issue or CCPS issue, this was a global issue. It was hard for me to

process this.

Professionally, I realized I was able to work from home without any issues. I thought it

would be unproductive, but I was more productive than traditional teaching. I surprised myself

by being super productive while working from home.

In my personal life, this pandemic showed me that I could never be a stay-at-home mom.

My son was a year old when the pandemic started and while many people told me it must be

great to spend so much time with your little one, I was slowly banging my head against the wall
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because I didn’t have any time away from him. My husband was still working full time from

home in March 2020, leaving me to be a mom full time.

I will say as a family overall, my husband, son, and I did become closer and more of a

family unit. We were able to spend more time together going to the beach, taking walks, and

enjoying the outdoors.

Overall, the pandemic brought a lot of uncertainty, but there were some good things to

come from it. I hope as we continue through COVID 19, we change some of ways of teaching,

our use of technology, and just overall how we treat each other.
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References

High schools in Calvert County Public Schools District | Maryland ... (n.d.). Retrieved September 15,

2022, from https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/calvert-

county-public-schools-112793

Huntingtown High School. Scheibel Construction. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2022, from

https://www.scheibelconstruction.com/projects/huntingtown-high-school/

Huntingtown High School in Huntingtown, Maryland (MD). Huntingtown High School in

Huntingtown, Maryland (MD) - Test Results, Rating, Ranking, Grades, Scores, Classes,

Enrollment, Teachers, Students, and Report Card. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2022,

from http://www.city-data.com/school/huntingtown-high-school-md.html