The pandemic has changed our daily lives drastically, and the children have been hit the hardest. It has been a year since we had to shut down our in-person instruction and quickly moved to distance learning. As we all know, children are very adaptable and can bounce back rather quickly to a change in their environment. However, this long shelter in place and the lack of ability to physically see their friends and teachers has caused so much depression and unhealthy habits for so many of our children. The loss of learning and the social-emotional well-being due to this pandemic is a huge crisis. The numbers of children being seen in the emergency rooms for depression and suicidal thoughts have skyrocketed. 

CSEA has been working diligently with state lawmakers to ensure the safe return of both students and staff. Ukiah Unified School District and your local Ukiah Valley Chapter of CSEA have also been working diligently to ensure the safe return to in-person learning for both students and staff; the district created re-opening committees the same month we moved to distant learning. The amount of time and endless efforts to ensure we could re-open to in-person instruction when deemed safe was inspiring. Kindness and collaboration were evident in this process. Meeting with solution-oriented people and brainstorming ideas and concerns led Ukiah Unified to develop a safety plan that allowed us to re-open to a hybrid model of in-person instruction while still giving parents a choice to remain in all distant learning. 

Our superintendent worked tirelessly to get vaccines to all staff that wanted to receive them. This was no easy task, and I would like to thank Deb Kubin for her tenacity and dedication to our staff's safety.  Our entire leadership team should not go unrecognized. They have all been working so very hard and deserve our gratitude and kindness. I would also want to thank Sage Sangiacomo from the City of Ukiah for helping make our vaccination efforts successful. Like all of us, they were thrown into an impossible situation and rose to the occasion with dignity and passion for doing the right thing. 

I could not forget to mention our entire Classified and Certificated staff for also rising to the challenge of this impossible pandemic crisis and yet continuing to provide the much-needed support to our students and their families. Thank every one of you for everything you do to ensure our students and families are safe and supported. Having been a part of this process was an opportunity to see just what an amazing district Ukiah Unified is, and I am proud to be a part of it.

We are now in our third week of the hybrid in-person instruction, and the difference in the kids that have returned and their teachers bring tears to my eyes. The pure joy in their faces and the new pep in their steps is evidence for how much we all need social-emotional connections. I have seen a huge difference in my own son’s depression. He has more desire to be outside, has more energy, and is less fearful about the pandemic. When asked about how he feels about being back in school, he replied, “I don’t ever want to not have school again.” This statement is in stark contrast to pre-pandemic as he would say things like “I don’t want to go to school anymore.” When I asked him about this, he said, “Well, Mom, I never knew because we never had a pandemic that closed schools for a year.” So even though this has been devastating to our children, I think the lessons they have learned through it are life-changing as well.