OMAHA- Three consecutive school years have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Full remote learning at the end of the 2019-20 school year morphed into teachers simultaneously teaching in-person and remote students in 2020-21.

Along the way, workers in school districts across the Omaha metro area have overhauled their operations and worked long hours to meet new demands.

Custodians sanitized surfaces according to enhanced cleaning protocols.

In kitchens and parking lots, nutrition workers and other staff formed human assembly lines to package and pass out thousands of to-go meals.

Teachers taught students who were prepping food in restaurants and watching virtual classes on their phones because their families needed the extra income. Then teachers organized help sessions outside normal hours to catch students up.

“It’s not like somebody said, ‘Look, here’s the model. This is what you’re going to have to do.’ We just got it put in our laps, and then we had to figure it out,” Hillside Elementary Principal Cynthia Bailey said. “We continue to try to figure it out.”

For their work educating, feeding, comforting, and caring for students and their families throughout the pandemic, The Omaha World-Herald honored all school workers. They named teachers the newspaper’s Midlanders of the Year for 2021.

For the full article click HERE