One of the biggest challenges facing the 2020-2021 school year is the uncertainty of when or if Seaman High School will go back in-person all five days. 

Personally, the live steam in September was hard to watch, seeing my own peers stand up for the students and teachers of Seaman High School, opposing the full return of middle and high school students.

During the meeting, it was clear that the board leaned more towards the parent’s interests, ignoring the concerns of people actually in the school. Students then banded together to compose four speeches, making the concerns of both teachers and students apparent to the board.

“The board doesn’t listen to the teachers. When they [teachers]  bring up a point or want to go to a board meeting, they’re told to go up to the chain of command. Nobody knows what the chain of command is. And when they do try and figure that out, they’re ignored. It’s pretty clear that the board says they want teacher input, but they’re only doing that for show.” Senior Forrest Brungardt stated. 

On October 12, 2020, four students from SHS banded together to try and get through to the board. Those students were seniors Kaden Fox and Molly McClimans, and juniors Kevinh Nguyen and Theo Wagnon. 

“Each of the speeches have their own important contribution to our concerns. Kevinh emphasized how we need to move forward together, while mine was pushing for a need-based return to the school other than a want-based return. Kaden was super powerful because of his inclusion of an anonymous letter from a teacher. Theo’s was backing everything up with statistics. ” McClimans added. 

The presence of the students standing up and voicing their concerns showed a dramatic understanding from the board. During the meeting, the members seemed to be swayed and pleasantly surprised by the student turnout. 

Sophomore Jozee Esser explained, “It feels like the board cares more about our image, like we’re doing so well, and we can’t think about that. We have to think about the health and safety of others.”

The final decision regarding a full return to in person learning was to wait until the next board meeting, on November 9, to reevaluate if Seaman’s secondary school should go back all five days.