One of the most widespread impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been its effect on school children and their families. Last month, we asked listeners to share their own stories from this unique “back to school” season.
Spokane Public Radio’s Chris Maccini shares one person’s experience from our series, “My Story.”
Merrilee Shulz is a music teacher and mother of three from Deer Park, Washington. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, her husband, who is a pharmacist, expressed concern about sending their children back to public schools.
“So, I got this idea that we could make their own school, in a way," says Shulz. "We ended up making a distance learning support center and putting them fully online.”
She had the extra space, a large studio in downtown Deer Park which she’d used for group music lessons prior to the pandemic.
“And what we did is we sectioned it out into workstations," Shulz said. "We made eight workstations for three of my children and extra kids that needed to come in and have a place that was sanitized and ready to go with high speed internet and everything they would need. It’s like a pod, it’s actually really fun.”
She added air purifiers and cleaning protocols to minimize the risk of virus spreading between students. Now, with her socially distanced setup, Shulz is able to help both her own kids and others in the community stay on track with their school work.
“We have students that are fully online, like my children, but we also have kids that are in the public school system still," says Shulz. "The public school system in Deer Park chose to go with an A/B plan so they actually only go for two or three days per week for in person classes. And then the other two or three days per week, they’re left kind of to their own devices.”
Schulz says it’s particularly important for working parents to have somewhere for their students to be supported. “Especially now, it’s really important that they can go to work because of the extra financial strain of all these things happening and going on.”
The coronavirus has brought a lot of uncertainty to this back to school season, but for Merrilee Shulz, it’s also brought a unique opportunity to spend time with her children and support others in the community.
To hear more “Back to School” listener stories, or to submit your own, visit SpokanePublicRadio.org/MyStory.