Although spring break is over and there haven’t been any snow days, area schools were eerily empty this week.

Due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman announced Sunday, March 15 that all public and charter schools would be closed through Friday, March 27.

For administrators at Sedona-Oak Creek School District and Sedona Charter School, this announcement came after they had already decided independently to not reopen as planned after spring break on Monday, March 16.

“We were laughing because it was changing by the week, now it’s changing by the day and its changing by the hour,” SOCSD Superintendent and SRRHS Principal Dennis Dearden said of the rapid changes regarding the status of Verde Valley and Sedona schools.

On Friday, March 13, Verde Valley superintendents announced that they would be keeping schools open based on the health department recommendations at the time. A few days later, that changed after a joint meeting between the districts.

“After we made the decision to close as the Verde Valley superintendents, then the governor comes in and tells the whole state [to close],” Dearden said. “It started with one school – Alhambra, in Phoenix – that closed on its own. And then pretty soon it was six [schools], and then it was 16, and then it was 28, and then it was 56 and then the governor comes in and closes the state.”

But just because students aren’t coming to the physical school to learn, that doesn’t mean that classes are canceled. District teachers are delivering their lessons through Youtube, Google Classrooms and other online platforms that they choose, with everything also available in a paper packet format for pick-up at the school.

“Some of [the teachers] are actually videoing themselves through Zoom and then delivering a short presentation and then following with some homework – that type of thing.” Dearden said. “We want to deliver some instruction to them but we don’t want to overwhelm them [during] this period of time either.”

While SOCSD has a platform specific to online learning with their alternative distance learning program, Red Rock Academy, as well as their credit recovery program, Assistant Superintendent Deanna DeWitt said that for the two-week closure, the time and training it would take to convert standard students and teachers to that online platform didn’t seem practical. However, if the closure is extended, she said they would probably utilize the option.

“Right now, since it’s just two weeks, we’ve asked our teachers to create their lesson plans that are classroom-specific to keep that continuity with their students,” DeWitt said. “It’s right in line with what they’ve already been doing in their classrooms.

“For the sake of the kids too, we thought it was really important that it was personalized enough that they could still recognize who they were working with,” Dearden added. “Because to give them just one format and not connect them personally to the teachers they were used to having – we didn’t think it was fair either.  So we allowed teachers to develop their own type of continuation of instruction that they were doing in the classroom.”

Because Sedona Charter School Director Alice Madar made the decision to close schools on the morning of Friday, March 13, before the Sunday state-wide closure, the teachers at SCS were able to pull together programming for the first through eighth grade students over the weekend.

“It’s a combination of online learning and kind of like extended homework assignments,” Madar said of the SCS student work for this week and next.

Teachers will be able to post assignments using Google Classroom. The school was already utilizing an online-based language program for their Spanish and French lessons, which students will continue to use over the break, Madar said.

Projects vary by grade-level. In a letter to SCS students in grades 4-6 and their parents, teacher Suzi Ashley encouraged journaling.

“We would like the writer’s notebook to be used for journaling each day. It is very important to keep writing, some suggestions are to take a nature walk and write down what you see, keep a daily log of your activities, jot down thoughts and feelings about having school at home,” Ashley wrote. “We will try to keep as much normalcy as possible, but like many other schools going to online teaching, this is uncharted territory that we are navigating through together.”

SCS students in grades 1-3 will be preparing a research project on a topic of their choice, which they will present when they return to class. Along with math, history and typing practice, the lower elementary teachers also recommended 20 minutes of outdoor activities as part of the kids’ physical education, including bike riding, walking, hiking, jumping on a trampoline, jump rope, swimming, frisbee and other sports.

Teachers at SCS have been grading and returning work remotely, and are available to answer questions. SCS Middle School principal and teacher Jacki Rice said, “It’s like having one-on-one time with 25 students all at the same time, all day long.”

Although teachers and administrators are trying to find the positives of the remote learning, the extra two weeks off have already put a damper on many pre-planned spring field trips and activities,  and may continue to with the uncertainty of weeks ahead.

“The most tragic thing is our kids have been working all year long to play at Carnegie Hall and that was supposed to be March 16,” Madar said about the SCS strings program. “Twelve hours before we got on the plane we got a notice from Carnegie hall that they were canceling all performances for March.”

Students worked hard to fundraise for the New York trip for months, along with help from community groups like the Sedona Rotary Club.

“Carnegie offered to reschedule for May 11 but we’re not sure that that’s even going to happen because now they’re saying no crowds for eight weeks,” Madar said. “So it is extremely frustrating because we really can’t see the future for the next few months. We’re just trying to take it week by week.”

If SCS students are not able to go to New York this year, the raised funds will still go to benefit their music program, Madar said.

Although private schools were not required to be closed by the state, many did so on their own accord.

Verde Valley School, Village of Oak Creek’s boarding school with a high percentage of international students, extended their spring break through March 29. According to a letter to families from Head of School Paul Amadio, VVS will begin virtual and online learning starting March 30.

“At this time, we request that all boarding students who are not currently at home either return to their own homes or to destinations of parent/guardian preference,” Amadio wrote. “With new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is essential that all international boarding students find arrangements other than returning to campus on the 22nd.”

If students had no other choice but to return to campus, they would be quarantined to their dorms for 14 days, the letter stated.

Sedona Village Learning School, a new preschool set to open at Big Park Community School on Monday, March 16, decided to postpone its opening after the regional school district did. Owner Joanna McPherson was at first hard-set on keeping the starting date the same, but said conference calls with board members helped her realize that safety should be prioritized.

“Thinking through what to do helped us clarify that the priority isn’t to make a presence against all odds by having our first day of school, but to place first the needs of our families in preventing any potential transmission at our school,” McPherson said.