OPINION

Gaston County teachers and school staff the real superheroes

Ray Hardee

So school has started and is starting in private, public, and home settings! All settings are so important as different families seek to give their child the best education. I have one at a private pre-school, one at a private Christian school, and one in public school (along with her mom, a public school teacher).

No matter where you happen to invest your child’s education, the people they encounter matters.

Today, I want to say, “Here’s to the public school teachers and administrators and staff!”

Let’s reflect on the effects in education of these unsung heroes in education, especially going through the pandemic over the past two years.

Here’s to the cafeteria workers! They invest their time and talents in preparing breakfasts and lunches for all students, bringing food to classrooms on carts, and dispersing them throughout the day.

Furthermore, they prepare breakfasts and lunches for students who were not in school for parents who depended on school food to feed their children daily. In Gaston County Schools, over 2 million such meals were prepared during the pandemic.

Reba Walker talks to her first graders during the first day of school early Wednesday morning, August 17, 2022, at Lowell Elementary School.

Cheers for the custodians! They have invested their lives deep-cleaning their entire schools daily including bathrooms after every use, cleaning and re-cleaning faucets, defogging classrooms in the morning, in the middle of the day, and after children left the building while diligently wiping refrigerators, microwaves, and anything else touched by students, faculty, and staff members.

Here’s to school administrators! They invested their days restructuring their entire school building complexes with dots 6 feet apart, revising play schedules and making art, music, and physical education accommodations.

Thousands of communications through emails, phone calls, and zoom interactions with parents were executed in order to keep students on track with the best education that we could offer them.

Ray Hardee

Kudos to the teachers for teaching online on a new platform, working with students having difficulties in their work, and some for teaching everything completely online.

Salutes go out to the school nurses and staff for contact tracing to keep students from spreading Covid, engineering seating charts to ensure students were sent home who sat near students that contracted Covid, and for creating and stewarding the general welfare of school environments.

Here’s to the teachers who covered for one another demonstrating an “all-hands-on-deck” attitude to cover classes and teach other classes when teachers contracted Covid along with other circumstances where a teacher was out for extended periods of time due to sickness, having babies, necessary surgeries,  etc.

Thanks to the mental health workers for supporting students that were having mental health issues due to circumstances at home and the quick change of not being at school every day, wearing masks, and lack of socialization.

Cheers to the coaches and athletic administrators who sought to keep hope alive for athletes yearning to compete!

Yes, the real superheroes and role models are the teachers and staff of the Gaston School System. Hollywood stars and athletic professionals stand aside. We all need to offer our praise and thanks to educators — our everyday, extraordinary heroes that make excellent education available to all.

Ray Hardee is lead pastor at The Pointe Church in Belmont.