Strategic Vision, Community, and Leadership: How Oakland Catholic High School Thrives in a COVID-19 World

from June 2020 issue - Northern Connection Magazine

Tyler Franklin | Heartland

At Oakland Catholic High School, planning and commitment to the school’s mission allowed for a quick and smooth transition to remote learning, where education continues to be an experience, and not just an academic checklist to complete for a diploma.

During end-of-day announcements on Thursday, March 12, Oakland Catholic students were instructed to bring home anything they might need for a possible extended school closure. They were quickly reassured that classes and studies would continue, but in a different fashion, and for as long as necessary. Despite disappointment that the annual Spirit Week was cut short by a day, there was no panic or major outcry because letters from administration about the developing coronavirus situation had been arriving at this point on a fairly regular basis. Leadership had been following research and the virus since it first impacted the school in January, when it forced six international seniors who had traveled home to be with family during the Lunar New Year, to remain in China and complete their final semester of high school remotely. Thanks to a forward-thinking Board of Directors, an ambitious strategic plan that focused on technology, and a holistic mission built on an integration of academics, community, and spirituality, shifting instruction remotely was not only possible, but already in place and tested.

With only one day of in-service to review protocols and the newly devised A/B schedule of alternating classes, Oakland Catholic High School was up and running in full remote capacity. They even had a new logo: We Are OC! Now remote!

The quick and effective transition served both students and parents well. By providing structure and routine at a time when disruption and anxiety reigned, Oakland Catholic provided an anchor of familiarity when few reassurances of normalcy seemed to exist. All was well and the school year would finish on time! Advance planning and decision-making certainly didn’t predict COVID-19,

but it did prepare the school and its students well for whatever the future presented. The school’s mission? Educate young women to become competent, confident, compassionate, and ethical global leaders. COVID-19 presented yet another opportunity to live this mission. Not a new responsibility, just different circumstances. Oakland Catholic has always been in the business of preparing for the unpredictable. The goal remained intact; faculty and leadership simply needed to adapt the means of achieving that goal. Of course, there were the inevitable cancelations. And, the Seniors naturally despaired at the loss of ceremonies and events planned out years in advance. But long before this year’s Commencement Speaker, Kelley Cooper Miller, OCHS’91, advised the Class of 2020 to not wallow in questions of “why” when things go awry, but instead urged them to pursue the “what” of a situation, this class, along with all OC students, faculty, staff, and parents asked a lot of “what” questions. What can we do to transform traditions so that they still occur? What are the ways we can adapt pedagogy so that lessons are equally effective despite a remote environment? What do we need to create in order to not just maintain community, but build connection and engagement with each other, with our studies, and with the larger world? This is when the mission of the school, the spirit of the community, and the expertise of so many converged. This is how Oakland Catholic is not only surviving this pandemic, but continues to thrive.

Gifts were delivered to the Class of 2020 on two occasions, along with their caps, gowns, honor cords, and eventually diplomas. A virtual Commencement, aired on the same date as graduation was scheduled to take place, was personalized with video clips

of each graduate “walking” in her cap and gown when her name was announced. Annual events like the Language Fair, the Global Competence Initiative (GCI) Global Showcase, and Admissions events all went virtual as keynote speakers recorded themselves from home, an “OC At Home” hub on the school’s website was created, and Student Council recorded the daily prayer for the announcements that came out each Motivational Monday, Together Tuesday, Wellness Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, or Faith-filled Friday. These are just some of the moments and events that built community, but the real story about any school has to do with learning.

OC Faculty quickly recognized that good teaching is good teaching, regardless of the environment in which it occurs. Teachers built instructional videos and designed flipped classroom lesson plans. They held office hours and presented engaging lectures via zoom. They employed OC Alumnae to present lectures and hold discussions with students on topics relevant to the subject matter being taught. They filled Schoology and Edpuzzle, two platforms that were pushed out to all school laptops at the start of this school year, with discussion boards, posts, assignments, and formative assessments. Mission Forward, the school’s 1:1 laptop program instituted six years ago, has been an essential component of the school’s success. Another is the commitment of leadership to frequent, honest, and direct communication. Sessions like the President’s ThinkTank for different groups of students and Conversation with the President - for Parents Only were well-attended in evenings, allowing students to provide feedback on what was working and not working with remote instruction, and offering parents a forum for making suggestions, asking questions, and receiving transparent answers. The typical weekly electronic newsletter still appeared in everyone’s inbox on Wednesday morning, supplemented by the Sunday evening Student Announcements, but daily bulletins, letters that were emailed and then posted on the OC At Home update page, and daily video conferencing among administrators, academic departments, directors, and office staff kept everyone in the loop and on the same page. Forward-thinking, progress, and positivity were the vocabulary words and mantra of all invested in closing campus but continuing learning.

Before COVID-19 became a household vocabulary word, the academic year calendar was set. Oakland Catholic will finish as scheduled. Campus will remain closed into the summer, but learning at Oakland Catholic never ceases. Knowing that the incoming ninth graders have missed some instruction, and that returning OC Students still need the community’s support and connection, a Virtual OC Summer is gearing up! Communication strategies for each grade level are being mapped out so that students have a chance to interact socially online and continue their educational experience. The mentoring program for incoming freshmen will begin earlier than usual to facilitate friendships and familiarity with all that Oakland Catholic offers to young women of this region. They will receive their laptops by the end of June and Zoom sessions will be offered for free as teachers create learning experiences in the arts, mathematics, literature, and science.

Scenarios for the start of school at the end of August are in full development, and although it is clear that even the most “normal” return will entail safety measures and constraints on how school typically operates, there is certainty within the Oakland Catholic halls that the mission to educate young women to become competent, confident, ethical, global leaders will be carried out to its full extent. n