New normal for McNaughton High School

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This article was published 04/10/2020 (1818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

McNaughton High School returned to school the first week of September with half the students the Tuesday, half the students the Wednesday, and all the students on the Thursday and Friday to help the transition back into the classroom.

“I always get excited for the first week,” said McNaughton High School Principal Jeff St. Onge. “It went really well. The first three days focussed on orientation with smaller groups to walk them through the protocols and Friday was the first day of instruction. It got better every single day. We found a few of the hiccups early on and eliminated those and it kept getting better even though the number of students doubled on the final two days. It was certainly nice to have that week to work on the training.

“The first three days were referred to as the significant 72 (hours). We went through all of the rules and we tried to simplify them for the students, especially because the rules change with the fluidity of the situation.

“There were some odd little challenges that popped up,” he said. “The reason they pop up are because when you make plans for so many different scenarios, you might miss a few little things here and there. A little one that popped up was, everybody is supposed to eat their lunch in the room they receive their morning instruction. That seems pretty easy, but we realized what if they’re in Phys Ed? They can’t eat their lunch in the gym. It might seem like an obvious one, but I understand you’re going to miss little things when there’s so much other stuff to get right.

“The misses tend to be little incidental things like that, and we have the first week to catch those things. But it has been really good.”

St. Onge is most proud of how supportive the teachers, students, and parents are with the return and how happy everyone is to be back in the classroom.

“From the staff, they’ve been very accepting and understanding,” he said. “They’re happy to be in the building. They signed on to be teachers and they want to teach. They’ve been very supportive. Teacher’s like to know exactly what to do and so we’ve been very detailed with them. Communication has been key and they’ve been great. The parents have also been very positive.

“At the beginning of the year it’s common for kids to be coming through the office in the first couple days for timetable changes, but I gotta say this year it’s warming our hearts because they’d come into the office and would tell us how much they missed us and how much they appreciate us. We’re very proud of these kids. It’s just a genuine all-around appreciation. Everybody is so thrilled to be in the building and they have a true understanding of how much we care for them.

“The tone in the school is very good. We’ve also noticed a silver lining. With teachers being with a cohort for three hours and the weather being wonderful, they’ll take a break outside and there’s far more interaction between students and teachers (within the cohorts) than ever before. It’s an unexpected bonus of having the students for three hours in a row and it’s wonderful to see. It’s been a smooth return and there’s negatives and positives, but I’ll choose to look at the positive every time.”

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