Parents of eighth graders began getting calls Oct. 30. A student and a faculty member from the Tallmadge High School location had tested positive for COVID-19, and their student was to be isolated immediately. Students of the GOAT team, consisting of teachers Ann Hagedorn, James Dochat and Cameron Osborne, were instructed to stay home from school for two weeks due to making contact with a person who had tested positive.

This decision was part of a COVID-19 plan and response implemented by the high school at the beginning of the year. In efforts to contain the potential outbreak, over 75 students were asked to stay home and quarantine themselves from Tallmadge High School. The Tallmadge administration chose not to comment on this issue.

Due to the sudden switch to remote learning, the teachers had to quickly change their lesson plans to fit an online setting.

“We were told on a weekend that we had to go from every other day teaching to teaching everyone, all day online, every day. That was a drastic change in my plans and how I teach the students. We also went from having 15 students in a class to 27 all together online, so the class culture changed. We also had to adjust how we present our lessons and material and how we are able to help the students and keep them engaged,” Hagedorn said.

This change came with many problems for the teachers, who now had to handle bigger classes and more students.

“I am working with three computers and multiple screens so that I can see my students in the Google Meet, see their work in Go Guardian, and see the documents I am presenting to the students,” Hagedorn said.

Despite the situation, teacher Cameron Osborne remains optimistic about Tallmadge’s handling of COVID-19.

“I  believe Tallmadge has been doing a wonderful job at keeping our students and staff safe.  We need to continue to abide by our policies and look forward to when we can teach in a manner that is more effective for everyone,” Osborne said.

Osborne also decided to change the way he teaches his lessons when his students return from quarantine as an extra precaution for social distancing protocols. 

“Before the quarantine I constantly walked around the room while discussing the topics.  That will change as I need to make sure I am staying consistently six feet away from the students.  Any student who has a question when they are working independently will now have to come to my desk to get the extra help they need,” Osborne said.

Up until late October, Tallmadge schools had no confirmed positive cases within the district. As of Nov. 12, Tallmadge has had nine confirmed positive tests throughout the district per the Tallmadge Covid Tracker, located on the Tallmadge City Schools website.

The quick action of the administration shows that not only was Tallmadge prepared for this, but that they were ready to implement actions to stop any potential risk of losing the school year.

Dochat said, “Even though change tends to be difficult, the students have been awesome.”