A lot can happen in a year. Exactly one year ago today, Hamilton County Schools closed its doors and transitioned to remote learning for what we thought would only be two weeks due to the recent appearance of COVID-19 in our state. Our students and staff never returned to school buildings for the rest of the school year, and the way we approach educating our students changed forever.
Through the summer, we worked furiously alongside our teachers, parents, students, and community members to outline a plan for the 2021-2022 school year that offered a safe learning environment and robust instruction, whether students were learning at home or in person. Thanks to this collaborative effort and the buy-in of our staff, students, families and community, Hamilton County Schools was able to successfully open schools for in-person learning right on time on Aug. 12, 2020, making us the first large school district in the state of Tennessee to open schools.
Our HCS staff, students, and families remained committed to the healthy behaviors outlined in our HCS SAFE Pledge, and allowed us to keep our schools open for 84 days of in-person instruction during the first semester. As we approached the holidays, our entire country saw a surge in COVID-19 cases and we were forced to transition to remote learning for all. Despite learning from home, our teachers and staff continued the momentum gained in the classroom and kept our students on track.
After the immensely challenging year we’ve all experienced, I found myself quite emotional last week as we were able to take a major step in our reopening plan. Increased access to the vaccine for our staff and the continued decline in COVID-19 cases in our community allowed us to officially transition away from using the Phase Tracker to dictate our school schedule, ensuring our in-person learners can be in school five days a week for the rest of the school year.
Although we feel cautiously optimistic that we are finally getting to the other side of this incredible feat, we must not lose our focus and continue to accelerate our work to ensure every student leaves Hamilton County Schools future ready. The last year has shown how incredibly resilient our staff, students, and families are, and we want to maintain that momentum and drive going forward.
Hamilton County Community: Over the last year you have shown what a strong and resilient partner you are for our school district. We thank you for your continued support and grace as we’ve navigated these trials together, and we ask you to continue to work alongside us in our mission to provide the best education possible to every student in Hamilton County. When COVID-19 is over, our students will still have needs and challenges. In the State of the System, I outlined four areas of acceleration as we approach the summer and 2021-2022 school year: Improving Literacy and Intervention, Enhancing Learning Environments, Educational Equity and Increasing Early Post-Secondary Opportunities.
In the coming weeks, we will provide updates on our progress in these areas and the plans ahead. The work is not over, but after seeing what our community is capable of over the last year, we are more hopeful than ever for the future.
We Are Hamilton,
Dr. Bryan Johnson
Superintendent, Hamilton County Schools