Maintaining School as the Great Equalizer During COVID-19 School Closures in Malverne: A Principal’s Perspective on Presence, Relationships, and Planning for the Future
By Kristen C. Wilcox & Aaron Leo
Educators are responding to the numerous challenges they face in moving to a completely online format due to COVID-19-prompted school closures. In this blog we check in with the principal of Malverne Senior High School, Dr. Vincent Romano, to learn about how he and others at the school are rising to the challenges of maintaining presence, focusing on relationships, and planning for the future amidst uncertain budgets.
Located on the south shore of Long Island, Malverne Senior High School serves approximately 561 students and is located in Nassau County with over 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID19 (April 28, 2020 count). Malverne’s student population is highly diverse in its racial, ethnic, and linguistic background with nearly half of all students receiving free or reduced price lunch.
Maintaining Presence during “An Abrupt Change”
In our discussion with Principal Romano, and much like Principal Verdonik at Maple Grove Jr.-Sr. High School profiled in another recent NYKids blog, it was clear that Malverne was well-prepared to weather the change to remote education. As Dr. Romano reported, all students in the district already had iPads and teachers were well-versed in using technology for instruction when the school closures occurred.
Yet even with students’ and teachers’ readiness to use technology, Dr. Romano described the challenges brought by an immediate need to teach completely online. “It’s been an abrupt change— almost a revolution,” he explained.
Maintaining a rigorous level of instruction while keeping students engaged in a completely online environment was the priority for educators at Malverne. As Dr. Romano put it, the focus is on “… connecting, connecting, connecting.” Highlighting the importance of synchronous learning through videoconferencing applications such as WebEx and Zoom Malverne staff are attempting to maintain teacher “presence”, which has been found in some studies of online education to relate to students’ cognitive presence. Dr. Romano explained their approach:
“Having that live contact—that engagement is pivotal. Yes, we can do a message board, yes we can do discussion boards, we can do that live. But certainly, the push that we had as a district was to get them to do live instruction… Having that live instruction is pivotal, so that’s probably one of the biggest changes we’ve had. And I think it’s kind of selling itself. I would say that probably 70 percent [of teachers], if not a little bit more as the weeks go on, are using the live instruction.“
Focusing on Relationships: “It’s not Just about Academics”
In addition to prioritizing presence in instruction, focusing on relationships is also a top priority at Malverne. To do this Dr. Romano holds weekly PTA meetings to disseminate information to parents and field their questions. In addition, he holds frequent faculty meetings and “office” hours for parents and meets online with the student leadership team weekly. As Dr. Romano explained, these frequent meetings also provide opportunities to issue supportive messages and encourage teachers during an experience that can bring about feelings of grief and loss.
“I think that teachers need to hear that they’re doing a great job. Because considering the circumstance and the environment, it’s hard to feel like you’re doing a good job. So, I think it’s important that they hear that.“
Dr. Romano also called attention to the need for educators to leverage their already strong relationships to attend to students’ social-emotional needs as this is critical especially under the added stress brought on by the pandemic. Dr. Romano explained:
“And then, you know, take the time to talk to the kids. It’s not just about academics today, we’re going to learn this… but our strength is our relationships with our students. I think that’s getting us through a lot of this… There’s strength in those relationships. There’s rapport. Our teachers know our students.”
Planning for an Uncertain Future: “A Lot of Challenges Ahead”
With budget cuts looming for the 2020-2021 school year, the suspension of the Regents Exams, and potentially weeks of lost instructional time, Dr. Romano acknowledged that there were “a lot of challenges ahead” for educators at Malverne.
For instance, with a long interruption in classroom instruction, Dr. Romano expressed concern that the “summer slide” – (the tendency for some students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds to lose some of the gains they made during the previous school year) – would be especially daunting this year. “Everyone is going through something a little different,” he explained.
In addition, as NYKids has detailed in previous blogs, schools provide important supports for families that go beyond academic preparation (e.g. food and child care), and those supports are especially crucial for students facing challenges in the home. Dr. Romano echoed concerns for students and families who are getting hit hardest by the pandemic:
“We know some of our children are living in hotels. We know some parents aren’t working, and have different economic and educational backgrounds – God forbid a family member is sick and maybe one is a healthcare worker. The challenges are there, and not to be present as a school, I think that’s probably the greatest impact for our community and for our children.”
Amidst a difficult set of challenges, Dr. Romano called for each member of the Malverne community to continue “being patient, and not being too hard on yourself.”
Summing up our interview with Dr. Romano, we share his wish that the information in this blog and the recording of the interview itself can help disseminate information and, in the words of Dr. Romano, express the sentiment that ”it’s nice to know you’re not alone”.
Thank you for following NYKids’ News and please view our Resources page for more information on remote education. We welcome any feedback or suggestions at nykids@albany.edu.
