2020 has brought so many terrible things, one of which is the Coronavirus–a pandemic that spreads globally and is spread person to person by “respiratory droplets” when within a six foot distance of an infected person. This has made going to school nearly impossible. 

Last March we were told there would be no school for a week.  This soon changed to months. 

So most schools throughout the country decided to move to online school. 

Online school has mixed emotions for many students, because it changes the schedules so much and has many social problems.

The biggest change for Centennial was moving from a 7 period day to 4 periods.  Assistant Principal Laura Scully spearheaded the move to what is now the reality for CHS students.

Question: How difficult was it to put this schedule together?

Scully:  “It was hard. It honestly broke my brain and was very stressful. This is the most complex schedule we have ever had.”

Q:  You have this set up for “hybrid” scheduling, too.  Can you explain what that would look like?

Scully:  “We started putting it together early in the summer–me and a team of teachers.  We coordinated with Gresham, since over 100 students currently attend CAL and we worked with the Oregon Department of Education.  We had to figure out what we have done and we had to try to keep it the same or change it. We started building in June. We had to try our best to get some students forecasted because not everyone had been, so we had to be creative about it. We surveyed parents, staff, and students all said seven classes was too much for distance  learning, so we reduced our schedule by half. We ended up doing a semester worth of credits in 9 weeks so everyone can still graduate on time. AP classes were hard because how do we make sure kids are prepared for AP tests. For hybrid we took all the students and cut them in half. We also wanted to make sure families weren’t going to school at different times, to reduce risk of spread.”

If we move to the hybrid schedule, “Cohort A” would go to school Monday, Tuesday, and then Wednesday will be a  deep clean. “Cohort B” will be Thursday, Friday. And when you aren’t in the building you have all classes 4 days a week, just 2 are at home.”

Q: Do you think we will be going back to school in the hybrid form at some point?

Scully:  “I don’t have a great crystal ball. It just depends on the infection rate in our area or if there’s a vaccine widely distributed.