'Our kids can't live a normal life': Tennessee parents, teachers prepare for first day of school

Heather Soder flutters around her kindergarten classroom at Johnson Elementary School in Franklin, organizing magnets with each letter of the alphabet and checking to make sure the "wobbly chairs" her students use are tucked neatly under desks as they wait for students to arrive in less than a week.

The small desks are spaced apart, though not as far apart as some health guidelines have recommended, and the carpet where her students normally begin their day is rolled up and put away.

Starting at the classroom door, tiles stretch out, each with a number from 1 to 13. This year, students will also be assigned a number — for contact tracing purposes, Soder said.

Soder has taught in the Franklin Special School District for 10 years. A former Teacher of the Year, she has experience educating some of the district's youngest students, and now she is getting ready to greet them on one of the most tumultuous first days of school in her career. 

"I have wanted to be back since this all started," Soder said. "It's important to me to be here just as much as its important for the kids."

To reopen or not to reopen?

Despite her joy about being able to return to the classroom this fall, Soder and her colleagues recognize the seriousness of reopening schools in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Schools in Franklin are preparing to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus to ensure classrooms are safe for students, teachers and their families, said Celby Glass, safety supervisor for the district. 

They recognize that some families are concerned about sending their children back to school and that many teachers are also worried.

Attitudes about returning to school vary widely across the state. As Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee pressures school districts to reopen for in-person classes, despite record high numbers of coronavirus cases, some teachers are speaking out and against the push.

REOPENING SCHOOLS:Gov. Bill Lee says in-person learning is 'best option,' calls for Tennessee schools to reopen

PLANS:A look at how school districts throughout Tennessee plan to reopen after coronavirus

Many districts are gearing to reopen in the upcoming weeks — some already have — but at least 1 in 4 Tennessee students are likely to start school online anyway.

In Nashville, tens of thousands of families are preparing for a first day of school that won't include returning to a bright, friendly classroom like Soder's.

Instead, parents are trying to pick up laptops, scramble to make room in crowded homes and piece together a schedule for their children who will be starting the school year virtually.

Making connections with students, teachers

Soder has already met many of her incoming kindergartners. Johnson Elementary conducted kindergarten screenings over the past few weeks, complete with face masks and hand sanitizer.

Connor Horn, whose 7-year-old daughter Avery is an incoming second grader at Granbery Elementary School in South Nashville, has not met his daughter's teacher in person yet.

Instead, he headed over to his ex-wife's house Thursday night to get online with her and their daughter for a virtual open house hosted by Granberry's principal. 

He praises the amount of information Metro Nashville Public Schools has put out since the district announced on July 9 that all 86,000 students would start the year online, but he also said it can be overwhelming.

Horn was excited to get his daughter's class list this week and see that she'll have some familiar faces in her 19-student class. But he is also worried.

Avery is an only child, and though he and his ex-wife are able to work from home right now, Horn said he is concerned about his daughter's social and emotional development.

"I believe education is multifaceted, and she’s an only child, so I feel like her I worry about her educationally, but also socially and emotionally just as much. She doesn't have those siblings to just work things out with. Like, I had three sisters and learned to be self-reliant pretty quickly," he said. "I do worry about her not being around other kids."

VIRTUAL LEARNING:What a MNPS student's virtual learning schedule could look like this fall

Many educators like middle school school teacher Connor SiegeI are just as stressed as they try to reach out to parents and students ahead of the first day of school.

"I am contacting every parent on my roster so that they can contact me at any time with questions. I’ll be setting up 1:1 meetings with students to introduce myself and do an entrance interview with them to better assess their needs and wishes for the school year," Siegel, who teaches sixth grade math at J.T. Moore Middle School, said in an email.

He is also trying to create "culture building activities" for his students through the MNPS learning platform, Schoology, in addition to what is being provided by the district, he said. 

Managing virtual learning, working from home

Morgan Barth, the father of two incoming kindergarteners at Glendale Elementary School, echoes Horn's worries.

He is hoping to form a learning pod, or a group of families that create a mini in-person school or hire tutors for their children, but he doesn't know a lot of families from his children's school.

"We are frantically trying to form a pod," Barth said in an email. "As the parents of rising kindergartners we do not have pre-existing relationships with other families at our children's school, so this is very hard. There is a Facebook group where some parents have been meeting each other, and then pairing off.

"The whole process resembles frantic, stressful online dating ... meeting another family online and then trying to determine if (they're) a match — finding alignment in terms of budget, pedagogy, schedule, values, COVID-safety norms, caregiver hiring and selection and so much more. It's complicated and expensive."

MORE FROM PARENTS:Why Nashville parents, wary of sending students back to class, still worry about quality of remote learning

Barth has been vocal about his belief that schools should reopen. He believes students will be safe and that many have needs virtual instruction can't meet.

"We think the district should prioritize elementary schools and students with special needs — neither group has meaningful access to education via virtual learning," he said. "And we are convinced by the data that young children are safe, safe around each other and safe around teachers."

Many parents don't have the resources or money for a learning pod, either. Some are trying to figure out how they'll go to work or work from home and keep their children engaged on their own.

Despite the challenge, Anna Thorsen, an MNPS parent, said her family is "super excited."

"I think we are one of the few families that has finally gotten our heads, hearts and schedules around virtual back-to-school," she said by email. "We are actually super excited."

LEARNING PODS:Why some Nashville parents are considering learning pods, tutors amid concerns over reopening plans

To prepare Thorsen's eighth and ninth grade daughters for virtual learning, the family has reorganized furniture so each girl has a desk in her own room — which the girls also are expected to tidy so they appear clean on computer cameras.

The family also set up daily schedules that include chores and time for short workouts during school breaks. They also have a schedule for the entire fall semester with weekend plans, local hikes and safe family and friend gathering to help them all have things to look forward to as fall progresses, Thorsen said. 

Thorsen said she feels very fortunate.

"We have flexibility to work from home, solid technology/wifi, enough money to purchase what we need and to take small trips, plus two kids that can self direct well even though they both have individualized education plans, or IEPs," she said. "Three weeks ago I was panicked. Now I am calm and ready. I am super impressed by my kids’ schools and teachers, and I think that we will make it work and be happy."

ONLINE LEARNING:Experts provide tips for a successful online learning experience as schools return

Heather Powell jokingly described her back-to-school preparation as "alternating between anxiety attacks" — a feeling many other families have expressed.

Powell works full time and, though she is able to work from home, she is already stressed about how to manage her 6-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter's learning at home. 

"How do we keep our kids engaged and learning during the quote-unquote school day while trying to keep our jobs and those side of things running smoothly?" she said.

'Our kids can't live a normal life'

Powell agrees with the MNPS plan to keep schools closed until at least Labor Day, but blames state and national leadership for the worsening pandemic that is preventing schools from safely reopening.

"I think we could be a lot further along in general with infection rates if there had not been such a failure in state and national leadership on the topic of mask wearing," Powell said. "I appreciate the effort at the local level and from what I've been able to see in the last several days is our numbers are trending down, but it's really a detriment that our kids can't live a normal life."

RELATED:State won't collect, release data on coronavirus cases in Tennessee schools

Though Lee has pushed for schools to reopen, the governor has left mask mandates to local officials. The Nashville Board of Health voted unanimously to mandate face masks during an emergency meeting in June. Williamson County also has a mask mandate, but not all areas of the state have pushed people to wear them.

"When left to local decision making and individual people we are already seeing that people are not willing to do that on our own," Powell said. "I just would like to see state, local national leaders follow the data and use data to make decision making. I think it's unfair to teachers, students and parents to try to push hard for in-person learning when it's not safe."

Making sure 'students are safe, but are still having fun'

Many districts in the region have determined it safe to return to in-person learning in the coming weeks. Sumner County students returned to school on Monday and the youngest students in pre-K through second grade return to class in Williamson County on Friday, Aug. 7.

More than a dozen Tennessee districts have already begun school this fall — they are among the first districts in the country to reopen since the pandemic closed campuses this spring. 

Soder and Glass said Franklin schools are doing everything they can to keep students and teachers healthy and in school this fall — from rotating teachers through classrooms instead of students, scattering lunch times and recess periods and requiring students to wear face masks.

"We obviously understand that, at some point, we might have to go home for a period of time," Glass said. 

She and Soder both encourage teachers and parents to understand that what happens outside the classroom affects what happens inside — and if students will be able to return at all.

"If I can say at the end of the day that I've been around these kids and I've done what they need me to do, without risking social distancing or being within six feet of someone, than that's what I need to do," Soder said. "We are trying to put up these protocols to make sure students are safe, but are still having fun and learning."

Meghan Mangrum covers education in Nashville for the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.