Reflections
In March of 2020, kids were thrilled when they found out spring break would last an extra couple of weeks, thanks to this new coronavirus that everyone was talking about. Twelve months have passed, and many kids have not stepped into a classroom since that day. For some of us, it’s been a year since we’ve eaten at a restaurant, hugged our parents or traveled on a plane. While the year-old COVID-19 pandemic may have exposed divisions in our society, in many ways, it’s also done the opposite. It’s shown us how creativity, compassion and a collective determination to do what’s best for our community can translate into an everyday heroism that allows us to overcome almost anything. We asked some community members to share their thoughts as we come up on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.
MANNY LETO, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS, TAMPA BAY HISTORY CENTER One of the first “From the Collections” videos we produced was a 4-minute look at Tampa’s 19th-century Yellow Fever epidemic. Just a month earlier, on March 14, the History Center closed to the public as Tampa faced another epidemic: COVID-19. A late-evening phone call with our CEO the night prior was followed by a statement issued to the media from my office. With that came the end of what was projected to be the History Center’s busiest year since 2009, when we opened to the public along Tampa’s almost-completed Riverwalk. Like most museums, we pivoted quickly to online content. Our mission – “discovering, preserving and learning from our region’s past to inform our common future” – doesn’t stop at our front door (and doesn’t even require a front door, really), so video content replaced in-person lectures and field trips and our social media platforms and website replaced darkened galleries. The History Center is home to nearly 100,000 artifacts, many of which you’ll likely never see – black and white photographs of buildings that no longer exist, maps to places where people no longer travel, uniforms worn in forgotten wars. Our “From the Collections” series is designed to feature some of these items, including one that has always caught my eye: A “health certificate” issued by Dr. John Wall in 1888. The now-faded and fragile document permitted its owner to travel into Tampa amid what would become one of the city’s deadliest outbreaks of the “Yellow Death.” The city was under quarantine, and many residents had packed up and headed for higher ground. Issued 132 years ago, this thin and brittle slip of paper felt heavy in our hands as we carefully placed it in front of the camera, adjusted the bright lights, and prepared to face our new reality.
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TampaBayParenting.com MARCH 2021
ADDISON DAVIS, SUPERINTENDENT, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS On our one-year anniversary of COVID-19, I can openly say that I have grown so much as an educator, civil leader, husband and father. While I was shutting down 240-plus schools within my first week on the job and transitioning to remote learning, I didn’t know that in a parallel perspective, I would be redefining educational practices for many years to come. Without a doubt, COVID-19 has advanced our way of work and exacerbated the realities surrounding the intellectual, social, emotional and digital divide. However, I am blown away with the fluidity of how our students, teachers, support professionals, leaders, board members and families have reacted during unprecedented times. Our employees have been nothing less than heroic, working tirelessly to provide high quality educational experiences for every student, in every classroom, every day. Collectively, we built the airplane while it is in the air. I am so proud of our community for trusting Hillsborough County Public Schools with our most precious assets: our students. Together, we will “Accelerate Hillsborough.”
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One Year of COVID-19:
