The Saint Joe High community is learning how to achieve academic success and adapt to their new work environments at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to COVID-19, there is a limited number of people allowed into sporting events. To ensure social distancing in the stands, the spectators are required to be six feet apart. Face coverings are required for everyone who attends the event. For example, Saint Joe High is having people buy their tickets in advance for the football games so they know the exact number of people in the stands. It is crucial to offer safe seating for all who attend. 

Art classes have been challenged into thinking of ways to help their students get hands-on with their projects. Some teachers have been bringing in their students on Flex Wednesdays to work on projects requiring them to use their hands. Mr. Kuharic, for example, has students from his Ceramics classes come to school during that time. While trying to learn online for many of the art classes can be challenging, teachers are still finding ways to help their students express their creativity. 

Students are finding the task of remote learning over video conferences to be challenging.  Remote learning has been utilized since March, about halfway through the spring semester of the 2019-2020 school year. Saint Joe is currently using two different video conferencing platforms, Big Blue Button (provided by Canvas) and Zoom. A significant set-back most people face are audio problems.  There have been several instances of people’s audio feeds cutting in and out of conferences and audio not loading. However, students appreciate the ability to stay connected with their teachers and peers.

Clubs are being impacted by COVID due to the lack of being physically in school, which is almost a requirement to hold club meetings. Meeting before or after school is not necessarily an option at the moment, so this is why clubs have to change the way they operate. Some clubs will attempt to meet via Zoom or possibly even a socially-distanced meeting after school later in the first semester, when we change modes. 

For the last few weeks, Saint Joe has been operating in Mode 3, which is remote learning from home via Zoom, Canvas or Google Classroom. When school opens up to Mode 2, there will be a mix of in-person and remote learning. This hybrid model is set to begin on September 15 and go until September 25. At that time, we hope to be back to full, in-person learning. For more information or updates, please visit www.saintjoehigh.com and click the COVID-19 tab.