Ronan MacDonald, a student at La Grande Middle School, works on an assignment during class on Thursday, April 7, 2022. 

LA GRANDE — More than two years have passed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Oregon, which saw businesses and schools close down repeatedly.

Schools were forced to make sweeping changes to continue operations. Some of those changes are here to stay.

“One of the things that will be sticking around for us here at Pendleton High School is that all of the teachers have become familiar with the Google platforms, especially Google Classroom,” said Principal Patrick Dutcher. “Now it’s been two years of running their lesson plans and assignments there. That helps with retention if kids are absent. I mean, obviously the state’s going back to more of an accountability when it comes to recording absences, but that has allowed families to get online to see what they’ve missed because the teachers do a really good job of updating the Google classrooms, especially for the daily assignments.”

Pendleton had already planned to add an online teaching component to their curriculum, but the pandemic accelerated that need. State and federal grants also allowed the school to enact a one-to-one plan, which gives every student a Chromebook to be used for school.

“If you’re a student at Pendleton High School, you have a Chromebook assigned to you at the start,” Dutcher said. “A lot of teachers were incorporating that technology into their lesson plans as it is, knowing each kid has access to a Chromebook.”

But while schools now have the ability to do remote learning in the case of emergencies, snow days will still be in place due to the chaos of switching to a remote learning environment on short notice.

“Snow days are what they are. I think it’s hard to get people organized on the fly,” Dutcher said. “You know, there’s something about being a kid and the Americana of having a snow day. But, as of right now, I don’t think there’s a plan in Pendleton School District to get rid of snow days. That’s not saying that it’s not off the table, but there is no plan to get rid of them on our end.”

The ability to integrate online learning has created more flexibility for school districts, according to La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza.

“I definitely think that choices and options, whether it’s home school and homelink programs, or whether it’s online schools and whether it’s brick and mortar — it’s here to stay,” he said. “And being flexible at home, online learning and hybrid approaches are here to stay. So anything that has to do with technology that enhances online as well as in-person learning is something we’re going to keep having to do, and we will. We’re happy to do that.”

Mendoza said that the school district had been pivoting toward integrating technology like Google Classroom and Canvas into its curriculum and toolkit, but the pandemic had accelerated that effort.

“We were already working on doing more with Google Classroom, posting lessons and activities and offering feedback and information and creating engagement through that, but (the pandemic) definitely made it something we had to get better at and do better at,” he said. “Having the ability for teachers to be able to create a classroom in person as well as a classroom online — to me, that’s part of the future and part of what has to remain for the future.”

Mendoza cautioned that online learning should also emphasize online citizenship and building healthy relationships online with classmates.

“We got good kids, but everybody needs to be better about how they interact on social media, and how they interact in digital messaging,” he said. “That’s part of the future, I think, and not only just good character education, but I think we need to make sure that we help kids have good relationships electronically.”

Part of that education future could include online classes taken at universities through partnerships with the school district.

“Any time you can create more options for kids or opportunities for kids, that’s part of the future,” Mendoza said. “Future kids and families want options more than ever, and we need to make sure we’re trying to create that opportunity.”