the principal's perspective

By Alexa A

Magdalena Moore is the principal at Jeanne R. Meadows Elementary school. She has been there for 11 years and plans to be there for a couple more years. She has never had a problem with running the school until early 2020.

In 2020, Covid had begun and everyone was sent into lockdown. It was hard for Mrs. Moore because her job was to run the school and take care of the children attending the school but since nobody was at school anymore, she struggled with connecting with others since it was hard to online and she didn't know how people felt most of the time. 

Moore: “During the pandemic, I didn't get to know them in the way kids who had been here I knew 'cause you know, being outside at recess and getting to know who their friends are and what they struggle with…that's really what I enjoy, is like knowing kids and families, and this way didn’t allow me to do that so I think for me, the hard part of it was not feeling connected.” 

The kids at the school are her biggest priority and will always be. She knows then extremely well that she can tell how the pandemic affected them. Before the pandemic started, she remembers them getting along with everyone and doing their best in school. After the pandemic lifted, some kids weren't the same as before. Not everyone is going to be the same after two years, but the staff from the school had mentioned that these kids started physical fights and got into trouble. 

It made her sad to know that the kids she knew by heart weren't the same anymore when she saw them for the first time, but she still loved them regardless. She knew it wasn’t like them to start fights/arguments with other students and the last thing a principal would want at her school is violence, especially at an elementary school. 

Although she struggled with the connection of the kids, she also struggled with the school staff. She feels like they are her second family, and it impacted her life to be so far apart from them; and she does treat them like her family and she always reassured them that it was them before work. To her, the work didn't matter more than they did and all she wanted them to feel was not as stressed being online so it wouldn't affect their mental health.

After she was asked about her struggles, she was asked about her experience when Covid restrictions had been lifted and how she felt going back to school. She was happy to see some faces she knew and happy to see her school family once again but it was different since we still had to be socially distant and safe from each other. That didn't really matter to her though. All that mattered was that everyone finally came back and just being in their presence made her really happy. 

She was excited to see what that school year was going to be like and what fun things could come.

Things still weren't the same but Mrs. Moore tried to make things go back to how they used to be. A part of it just wasn’t right to her, but she didn't try and change everything just because that would make everything feel less normal than it already was. She only wanted everyone to feel connected and more comfortable around each other to get along rather than having negativity spreading around. 

Moore: “Last year, honestly, the behaviors took so much time that we just didn't have the time or probably even the energy to do more. It's now in a manageable space where like, okay, we can start bringing back some of the things we used to do.”

She still continues to do some assemblies like before and events every now and then. She still manages to bring the school spirit back after it all.

It was a long and rough two years but she managed to get through it all.

For the Warrior Times, this is Alexa Ayala.