Dear Editor

As schools finish up what has traditionally been their Easter break, they will be entering into the fifth week of school closures in Montana. Closures are scheduled to go until at least April 24, with the potential that the school closures remain in effect for the rest of the school year. This pandemic has lead to the postponing of spring sports, all student activities, and potentially traditional graduation ceremonies. Regardless of when this ends, it is going to forever change how we view public education and how we teach students. I am in an extremely unique situation, being the school superintendent in two separate districts over 100 miles apart, while my wife teaches elementary education in another school district where our son attends school. This unusual situation allows me to have an overall perspective of our public education system that no one else would have. There are some commonalities between these three school systems, even though they are all very different communities in very different parts of the state. The main thing I realized is they all have amazing teachers. When the school closure was announced, the teachers from all three schools sprang into action with the speed and efficiency of an Indy 500 pit crew. They didn’t complain, they just went to work and did what they had to do to meet the educational needs of their students with the resources they had. None of them are trained to be remote educators and they had little time to prepare, but they attacked this great challenge head on and in a matter of hours they started providing a quality education experience to students. As this closure continues, these professional educators will still do everything in their power to help students succeed. I commend every school teacher out there for their incredible work during these unprecedented times. Your dedication and commitment does not go unnoticed. Though the teachers are on the front lines, we shouldn’t forget all the people behind the scenes making our remote education possible. All the local board of trustees that have had to have special board meeting after special board meeting to deal with the ever changing environment due to the school closures, on top of normal meetings as they still have bills to pay and business to carry on as usual. Our cooks providing grab and go meals for all children in our school districts. Our office staff still carrying out their normal duties as we are still in operation and have a business to maintain. Bus drivers for helping out anyway they can and the custodians who are doing everything in their power to make the school as clean and safe for when we resume. Plus our parents who now have to “home school” their children while still trying to carry on with their other responsibilities. Though I may live and work in three very different and diverse communities, I see one major commonalty that even though our schools are going through a major crisis, all of us have banded together to do everything in our power to do what is best for kids. We are in the kid business and even in the face of a worldwide crisis we continue to do whatever we can for kids. As a school administrators and parent I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for what you do. Hang in there and be safe and be well.

Brad A. Moore

Superintendent- Sweet Grass County High School

Superintendent- - Stanford Public Schools

Parent- Big Sandy,

Montana