COVID-19’s Impact on FHS Faculty.

FHS principal Joshua Hanna discusses COVID-19 and its effects on the FHS community.

Covid-19 has brought many schools new challenges and experiences which they have not faced before. Franklin High School principal, Joshua Hanna, says he is impressed with the students, parents, and facility’s hard work and positive attitude which he believes will allow us to get back to an in-person learning model.

Challenges

When asked what major impact did Covid-19 have on FHS staff, Mr.Hanna responded, “becoming crisis responsive regarding new regulations that have never been implemented before.” Schools were shut down almost a year ago and since then, a myriad of new regulations and safety precautions have been issued. As a result, teachers had to get quickly accustomed to educating students in socially distant classrooms or virtual google meets. “All these logistical things- schools hadn’t had as a challenge before… so administration whether it be at a district level or building level has had to make a lot of adjustments to accommodate for the ever-changing regulations,” says the principal in regards to the creation of new lunch schedules and cohorts to safely bring students back into school for in-person learning. Another obstacle that the administration has been facing is planning the school year; Mr. Hanna mentions that during a typical school year “on the first or second week of August…the school sends on a letter outlining the next ten months…but we haven’t been able to do that for even a month at a time” due to the stressful year and the unpredictable nature of it.

FHS Principal Joshua Hanna

Experiences

Though these are difficult times, Mr. Hanna has some praise for the FHS faculty-“the teachers have done an amazing job“. His appreciation for them is evident when he speaks on the new cohort schedule, “we really adopted the model we have, honoring the teachers and their content expertise“. Many teachers had to quickly adjust to the online model from what used to be a hands-on lab soon became a through-the-screen demonstration. He also believes that this experience will make the facility stronger saying “life creates opportunities for people to get better. Although this has been a challenge, it will be something we all will be able to say we survived and be stronger than we were before

Next year?

As for the next school year, Mr. Hanna is optimistic that we will soon be back to a normal (pre-covid like) classroom with in-person learning. He is also excited to feel the resurgence of energy in the FHS community by meeting students, and attending plays, concerts, and games. Principal Joshua Hanna wants you to know “This has been a challenging year, frustrating at times, and people here in this community have put a smile on their face and they get to work and they do their best… it is because of that hard work and positive attitude that will allow us to get back to normal“.