Students weigh in on stress of removing virtual Wednesdays

This week Manchester teachers and students alike experienced their first five-day school week in nearly a year.

On Friday, March 13, 2020 the COVID-19 crisis forced schools across the state and across the nation to close. Manchester, like most other Michigan districts, stayed closed for the remainder of the year. When Manchester Community Schools reopened this fall, it was with a complete learning safety plan that was developed and adopted in August, and has been updated frequently ever since. One of the safety measures was having “Virtual Wednesdays” where students, both in-person and virtual, would stay at home, catch up on homework, do online assignments, and have a few more degrees of separation; while the schools were deep cleaned by the custodial staff to prevent the spread of the virus as much as possible.

This worked out well, for the most part, for the first 20+ weeks of the school year. In January, the board considered whether to eliminate virtual/asynchronous Wednesdays and bring students back to school five full days per week. But although it was the end of the semester, the board voted 6-1 to retain the schedule that continued to work for most students and teachers. However, at its February 22 meeting, the board reversed the January decision and Virtual Wednesdays were eliminated by a 5-2 vote as of March 1.

Last week, staff and teachers responded vehemently to the decision; not only on their own behalf but on behalf of the students of the district. This week, however, school life goes on with new demands and a new schedule.

Manchester High School students Elise Tackett and Jacob Mann weighed in on the school board’s decision to return to in-person Wednesdays.

Elise Tackett, a junior at Manchester Junior/Senior High School, says, “I am grateful to be a part of a school district that is highly devoted to seeing its students succeed. However, myself and the majority of students at MHS felt betrayed by the recent decision to discontinue Virtual Wednesdays as they helped so many students succeed.”

In a school year where everything has been turned upside down, Virtual Wednesdays were the only days where students were able to catch their breath, Tackett said. Due to the four-block schedule at the high school this year, teachers are giving more homework to compensate for not seeing their students as often. However, after students finished their asynchronous assignments, they were able to use Virtual Wednesdays to catch up on homework.

That is no longer the case, of course. Now, Wednesdays at the high school alternate between Hours 1-4 one week, and Hours 5-7 plus an advisory hour on the second week. Elise says it is “unimaginably stressful to be a high school student during a pandemic.” SAT and Advanced Placement tests are  as lengthy and difficult as they were in the past, and some students used the Virtual Wednesdays as additional study for these tests.

“Virtual Wednesdays were also one day each week that students didn’t have to worry about being exposed to the Coronavirus,” Elise continued. “The high school was deep cleaned on these days to help prevent the spread of the virus.”

Senior Jacob Mann also shared his thoughts with the Mirror. “Students (and staff) — Grades K-12 — have grown accustomed to the way that our weekly schedule is laid out,” he says. “Students have used this time not only to complete assignments, but to receive one-on-one help from their teachers. Students have also used this time to decompress, mentally and emotionally refresh, and prepare to finish the week. Since the Board of Education decided to amend the Learning Continuity Plan on February 22nd — just one week before this new schedule would implement — students (are seeing) the direct impacts of an ever-changing schedule, causing stress levels to rise.”

In December and January, Mann said, he had surveyed the student body at the Junior/Senior High School asking their feelings on the four-day school weeks that they were currently experiencing. Both times, about 93% of students who voted “approved” continuing with the four-day week. “As seen from these results, the majority of the students approved and will continue to approve the four-day school week,” he said.

Mann also reached out to the SRSLY Manchester Coordinator, who came back with what he considered “surprising” statistics regarding student mental health, from the 2020 MiPhy survey:

– 81% of students say they have been negatively impacted from COVID-19
– 52% of students have a lack of motivation to do school-work
– 45% of students are having a harder time with homework
– 2 in 5 teens have said their stress levels have risen in the past year

He believes that with the inconsistencies displayed in polling and in the survey of student mental health, the elimination of Virtual Wednesdays could actually negatively impact students. “Students are not getting the time to take care of their mental health, which leads them to be unstable,” he says.

Elise says that she understands many people want to get back to “normal.” However, she adds, “things are not back to normal. We are still in the midst of a pandemic and students will not be eligible to sign up for vaccinations until the summer. In addition, taking away Virtual Wednesdays in the middle of a marking period has given students less normalcy in a year that is already so unconventional.

She added, “The students of MHS want to feel like they are being heard and have a say in their education. If the students are what truly matters to the school, then why do we feel like our voices are being ignored?”

“If we want students to succeed, we must take the necessary steps to make sure that their stress levels are low enough in which they are able to actively participate and succeed in school,” Mann concluded.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.