Following a summer of indecision and fear of the unknown, New Tampaâs schools finally opened their doors to students for in-person learning for the first time since they closed in March due to Covid-19.
âWoo hoo!,â shouted one parent, as she drove off smiling after dropping her two kids off at Benito Middle School.
Students spent the first week of the 2020-21 school year eLearning only, as the fight over whether or not to open brick-and-mortar classrooms for students and teachers raged on.
The Hillsborough School Board initially leaned towards doing eLearning only for the first nine weeks, before settling for four weeks after consulting a panel of medical experts. However, that decision was then overturned by Superintendent Addison Davis, after Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran threatened to withhold millions of dollars in funding to schools that did not offer a brick-and-mortar option for parents.
Busy at work cleaning and prepping their classrooms for a socially-distant learning experience, teachers finally opened the doors to their students on August 31.
After the first week, Chiles principal Teresa Evans said things went âremarkably well.â At Chiles, roughly 450 students were home learning online, while 400 or so learned in classrooms. Evans said none of her teachers were forced back into the classrooms, and praised their efforts in the opening week.
âI think we planned and planned and planned and what we planned has worked out so far,â Evans said. âThe kids arenât struggling with masks the way people thought. They have been very compliant, and the parents have been incredibly compliant and helpful in following the new rules.â
Those new rules include keeping desks as far apart from each other as possible, eating lunches outside under the schoolâs covered courts keeping everything as clean and sanitized as possible.
âWe were nervous, but never terribly worried,â Evans says. âWe were very careful and will continue to be, and we are tweaking things as we go.â
While the Covid-19 numbers were slightly rising in Hillsborough County during the first week, schools hadnât reported any large outbreaks.
According to the school districtâs Covid-19 dashboard, the first four days produced only 21 positive cases among students, and another nine from school staff.
The district is not reporting if any classrooms have been quarantined.
From March through July, the district reported 284 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
In New Tampa, the only schools to report any cases were Freedom High and Tampa Palms Elementary, with each reporting one student positive from the first day of school.
John and Sheri Thrasher opened Excel Music on Cross Creek Blvd. in 2006. They have adapted their business model to meet online student needs during the pandemic.Â
For more than 14 years, Excel Music on Cross Creek Blvd. in New Tampa has been teaching private music lessons to students of all ages. But lately, something has been very different than âbusiness as usual.â
Since March, all of Excel Musicâs students have been taught exclusively virtually.
âThe nature of in-person music lessons doesnât permit social distancing,â says Excel Music owner John Thrasher, âso weâve chosen to do virtual lessons.â
He says the schoolâs building, located in the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center on Cross Creek Blvd., has remained closed since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March. However, Excel Musicâs 20 teachers and dozens of students are as active as always, teaching and learning from their homes.
John says all of Excel Musicâs teachers are either university trained (many with Master of Music degrees) or they have at least 10 years of study and performing experience.
The music school offers lessons in voice and practically every instrument, with piano, violin, guitar and drums being the most popular, according to John, and quite a few students learning brass and woodwind instruments, too, such as trumpet, tuba, saxophone and clarinet.
Students work with the same teacher week after week, so although their teachers are now only on a computer screen, the student still know them.
âIt provides some normalcy and routine in their lives, when a whole lot of normalcy and routines have been removed,â says John, who adds that the school has continued to add âa steady streamâ of new students throughout the pandemic.
âObviously, parents are just as interested in improving their childrenâs lives as they always have been,â John explains. âMusic is still important, and virtual lessons are kind of the only way that you can do it right now.â
A Little Background Music…
John and his wife Sheri originally opened Excel Music in 2006, with the dream of providing the opportunity for young people to be trained for the kinds of careers and lives they once experienced themselves.
âWe both had long careers in music, and were professional musicians who were able to make a living performing,â John says, adding that he was the drummer for country singer Mickey Gilley for many years, which gave him the opportunity to perform on TV, at the White House and for people all over the world.
In the 1990s, John and Sheri had success together with a band of their own in Japan called Tz, where he says they sold tens of thousands of CDs. They also found themselves immersed in a culture that revered teachers, which led them to start thinking about passing on the knowledge and experience they had gained to the next generation.
âWe met tremendous people, saw great places, and made a living,â John says. âWe started thinking, âWhat if some of the kids who come through our school can experience what weâve experienced?ââ
However, John says he and Sheri recognize that the vast majority of their students will not go on to have professional music careers.
âOur teachers are good enough for that type of student, but most of our students will go on to have another career, such as a doctor or lawyer or something else,â he says.
He adds that the goal at Excel Music is to provide students with an appreciation for music, plus provide the benefits of learning how to play and/or sing.
âThereâs so much data about how great studying music is for your brain for spatial learning and big-picture thinking,â John explains. âThere are always studies coming out saying that because music is a whole brain activity, when kids learn music, their math and other school skills improve, too.â
Kristy Sargent, who lives in West Meadows, says her 10-year-old daughter Regan has been taking piano lessons for more than a year with Excel Music.
âBoth the school and her teacher have been so amazing,â says Kristy. âTheyâve been very flexible with being online. It hasnât been easy to have everything change so much, but theyâve done a really, really good job.â
Kristy says one of her favorite things is how well the teachers communicate. âItâs a fantastic school that feels very personal. It feels like they really care about you and your child.â
The Right Teachers, Too
John and Sheri want each one of their students to feel that way, so they carefully choose only the best instructors.
They ensure that every teacher they hire to work at Excel Music is background checked, has appropriate credentials, and truly knows both their instrument and how to teach it. John says that just because someone has a doctoral degree in music or some other accomplishment,that doesnât mean they will relate well to teaching students.
âThey have to know how to teach, which is a completely different set of skills,â explains John, who says that â over the last 14 years â he has tried to show New Tampa families that they can trust Excel Music to make great decisions about who to hire to teach for the school.
He says two teachers have been with Excel Music since it opened in 2006, and a number of others have stayed with the Thrashers for five, six, or eight years.
âWe definitely have stability,â he says. âWeâve been doing this for a long time.â
Age Doesnât Matter
And, while many of Excel Musicâs students are kids, the opportunity to learn to sing or play an instrument is certainly not limited by your age.
âA lot of adults want lessons, too,â says John. âWe get retired people who say theyâve wanted to play their whole lives, and now theyâre finally going to do it.â He fondly recalls a man who came to Excel Music to learn how to play the trumpet at 86 years old!
Dylan and Diya Arun give a thumbs up to online learning with Excel Music.
John says the last few months have been extremely trying and that he and Sheri â like virtually all small business owners â are just trying day by day to make the best decisions they can for their company, their employees and their customers. However, at the end of the day, they feel really good about the nearly 15 years theyâve spent leading Excel Music in New Tampa.
âWeâre putting music in peopleâs heads,â he says. âWeâre not making widgets that end up in landfills; weâre doing this thing thatâs good for our community and for the world in general.â
Excel Music, located at 10353 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite I, is open for virtual lessons only right now. For more information or visit ExcelMusic.org, call (813) 991-1177.
Taravat Tarahom didnât get to bask in the glory of being Freedom High Schoolâs Class of 2020 valedictorian, thanks to the outbreak of Covid-19 cutting short her senior year. Nor did she get to give her speech in front of a throng of her classmates in an arena, instead settling for a safe and socially distant recorded message.
What Taravat says she did get out of being Freedomâs valedictorian, however, was a life-altering accomplishment at the end of what, at times, was an extremely difficult journey.
âThis has taught me to look at one goal, but not make (that goal) my entire life,â the 18-year-old says.
She was able to balance a huge school load, deal with the divorce of her parents and the death of her dog, as well as a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, all while unexpectedly rising to the top of her class.
Taravat walked away from Freedom with a greater appreciation of her relationships and health and with the piece of mind that comes from learning how to stay prioritized.
âThe experience definitely changed me,â says Taravat, who finished with a 7.64 weighted grade-point-average.
Leyla Mohebbi, her mother, says she couldnât be more proud. She says academics have always been a priority in her home, where bringing home a B meant you would be asked, âWhy not an A?â
âI feel like Tara put the expectation onto herself that she did not want to be anything less than a valedictorian,â Leyla says. âIâm very happy. I knew that was her dream, and she made it happen.â
Taravat has followed in the footsteps of her sister Targol, who was Freedomâs valedictorian in 2015 and is now in medical school at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale. Taravat says she felt the bar was âset impossibly highâ before she even started high school. She faced a steady climb up the academic ladder, ranking only around No. 25 in her class after her sophomore year.
She remembers moving up in the class rankings after the first semester of her junior year, somewhere into the teens, and her determination to become the second valedictorian in the family was growing.
She mentioned to some of her classmates and her teacher in AP Biology that she was going to go for it, and they laughed, because she still had more than a dozen students to pass.
âThat set something off in me,â Taravat admits.
A former cheerleader, she started her senior year ranked No. 7 in the class, but once her summer grades were input into the system â âI had a crazy workload that summerâ â she had quietly risen to No. 3. But, she stayed under the radar, and continued to take a heavy load.
Taravat, who was co-president of the schoolâs Sierra Club, says a typical day in the fall of her senior year would entail waking up at 7 a.m. for six hours of school at Freedom, then coming home around lunchtime to eat and pack herself a dinner, and working for three hours as an online tutor, driving to the Hillsborough Community College (HCC) Ybor City campus for a three-hour English class and then heading over to the HCC campus on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. for physics lab.
In February, she found out it was official â she had quietly risen to the top of her class. She called Leyla. They cried.
Even More Challenges
The hard work did not come without a cost, however.
In December, she had lost 15 pounds and spent two days in the hospital, where she was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. âI was so wrapped up in school I didnât even pay attention to my health,â Taravat says. âI was kind of mad at myself for not noticing.â
Her diagnosis has triggered an interest in endocrinology, which she hopes to study at the University of Florida. She plans on majoring in microbiology and cell sciences.
And while her valedictorian speech wasnât delivered to a crowd of her classmates, it did come from the heart. Without the trials and tribulations of her senior year, it might have been a completely different speech.
Although Hillsborough County is giving parents three choices for the upcoming fall semester, it really comes down to two choices â learn in a traditional classroom with other students, restoring the social interaction and face-to-face contact that are the stalwarts of education; or learn in a more isolated and individual-based online format at home that makes it easier to avoid contracting the virus and transmitting it to others.
However, there is a group of local parents considering something else â merging the classroom and online settings together in a unique collaboration that, they believe, will offer the best of both worlds.
Tampa Palms resident Jenni Wolgemuth, an Associate Professor of measurement and research at the USF College of Education and mother of a first- and fifth-grader, is helping to organize a group of 4-5 families whose children will learn online, but will learn together in a small âlearning podâ overseen by a privately hired learning support specialist.
âA one-room school house,â Wolgemuth calls it. âIt is an attempt to create a bubble around a group of families, all agreeing to similar standards of social distancing.â
That school house, or learning âpod,â that Wolgemuth has organized will have nine students in it. Four of the students are fifth graders, who would hopefully have the same teachers at the charter school they all attended last year.
The pod also will include two first-graders, a third grader, an eighth grader and a ninth-grader. The parents would rotate hosting and the kids would bring their lunches and eat together and have time for outdoor activities together, too.
Everyone would still be taught by their schoolâs teachers through the online platform and Zoom video classrooms used by their schools. However, the parents are already interviewing people to be a support specialist, who would monitor the pod from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and help the students with technology issues, staying on task and doing their assignments.
âBasically what we would have been doing if we had been home,â Wolgemuth says.
The idea was Wolgemuthâs brainchild and she says she began thinking about the learning pod solution before the Hillsborough School District issued its choices for parents. She thought the District was too comfortable with the idea that everything would be fine by August. âIâm a planner,â she says. âThis was my plan A.â
She mentioned the concept to friends, but the response, at first, was tepid. She continued, however, to bring it up in conversations.
When she had a Zoom call with other parents after the choices were revealed by the District, there was still some hesitation. During that call with other mothers, however, one of the husbands, a doctor who works with Covid-19 patients, overheard the plan.
âThat is a really good idea,â he said, and the plan started to take root.
There are still hoops to jump through for Wolgemuth and her group, which includes a second Tampa Palms family, two families from Lutz and another from Carrollwood.
They will have to see how the pod works for the younger students, namely the two first graders. And, having nine or so computers using the same WiFi network could create issues that would need to be addressed.
Otherwise, Wolgemuth thinks the idea is the best fix for one semester, with the hopes that the coronavirus can be brought under control and that everyone can go back to their brick-and-mortar schools in January.
School is returning this fall, one way or another, and area parents have some tough choices to make. Those decisions only get harder with each passing day.
On June 18, Pasco County schools announced that parents will have three choices when classes resume in August. The deadline to choose had been July 1, but it was extended to Wednesday, July 8, the day after this issue reached your mailbox.
The three choices are as follows:
* A return to traditional, brick-and-mortar schooling, with special social distancing and enhanced disinfecting measures implemented, as well as mask requirements.
* Pasco eSchool, a franchise of Florida Virtual School (FLVS), which writes the courses that are taught by Pasco County teachers. Students work on assignments during non-traditional hours, with contact with teachers and classmates during web-based class sessions and other technology.
* A hybrid version of traditional & virtual school, being called âmySchool, for students not yet comfortable returning to campus, but who want to remain connected to their schools.
Students will attend scheduled classes every day via their computers, with synchronous class meetings. Students will have access to teachers during regular school hours, and attendance is taken daily.
As parents wrestled with these difficult decisions, the number of Floridaâs positive Covid-19 tests skyrocketed, raising new concerns and doubts, resulting in the deadline extension.
Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning, who announced the Pasco Schools plan, revealed just a few days later that he had tested positive for Covid-19. And, the coronavirus-related death of a 17-year-old Wesley Chapel High rising junior was being investigated by the Medical Examinerâs Office.
The Neighborhood News spoke with three parents, each of whom made different choices prior to today’s deadline. Each parent we spoke with stressed that they would reassess their choice as the pandemic played out, but they were each ready to move forward with what they felt worked best for their respective families.Â
The Willis family (l.-r.: Ethan, Chloe Alicia & Will) chose the âmySchoolâ hybrid option for their family for the 2020-21 school year. (Photos: Charmaine George)
Alicia Willis – mySchool
Alicia Willis considers herself an optimist when it comes to Covid-19. Sheâd like to think the virus will die out or become more manageable before schools re-open in August, or that a vaccine will be found.
But until then, sheâs not quite ready to send either of her kids, a rising first grader and a rising fifth grader, back to Sand Pine Elementary.
Instead, she chose the mySchool option for her children, which will allow them to attend school remotely and still follow the standard school schedule and bell times.
Alicia also strongly considered Pasco eSchool, where students work on their own schedules with different teachers than they ones they had in traditional school.
âGoing back to brick and mortar was eliminated (for us) immediately,â she said. âI do think they did a great job with the choices.â
Unlike Pasco eSchool. Aliciaâs kids still will be learning along with their usual classmates and teachers.
âIt was important to me that they get to have the teachers they are familiar with,â she said, adding that she thinks mySchool will make the transition back to regular school, should it come in January, much easier.
Alicia says her kids adapted well to online schooling this spring, and she didnât mind doing the teaching. But, she also says that her kids asked often about their friends and teachers at school.
Even before the three choices for the fall were put forward by Pasco County Schools, Alicia had decided her kids would be staying home this fall.
And, she said, the rising number of positive Covid-19 cases in late June, just before the July 8 deadline, made her more confident in her decision.
âI believe it will make some parents think twice and possibly reevaluate their decisions,â Alicia said. âParents going back to work may not have another choice. Iâm blessed to have the choice that I have.â
Kelly McDowell, with daughters Avery (left) and Audrey (right), has chosen the traditional brick-and-mortar school option for the 2020-21 school year.
Kelly McDowell –Â Traditional School
Kelly McDowell started online learning at her house at 8 a.m. every day. She says her third and fifth graders were expected to be up and ready to work. It took only a few hours each day for them to complete their assignments. Sometimes, they would work a little extra so they could have Friday off.
An accountant who is happy she is fortunate enough to have a flexible schedule, Kelly enjoyed her extra time with her kids.
But, Kelly said it could never replicate the benefits of a classroom at a brick-and-mortar school. When it came to making her choice, Kelly chose a traditional setting for her children, and plans to send them back to New River Elementary in August.
âI really feel the social aspect, and face-to-face interaction, is really valuable for them,â Kelly said. âThey need structure if school is going to be beneficial (for them).â
Kelly says her job is flexible enough that she could continue to work at home. So, she did seriously consider the online options, and while she says that mySchool may not be feasible for her family, Pasco eSchool (see next column) âmight still be in the back of my mind,â due to its more structured format.
But, Kellyâs kids like their momâs choice. It was what they wanted.
âThe kids were very, âI wanna go back to school,ââ Kelly says. âI told them they would have to wear masks, be extra vigilant and worry not about just themselves, but others, too. They were very adamant about going back.â
With the potential for school openings still more than a month away, and Covid-19 unfortunately dominating the recent news headlines in the Sunshine State, Kelly says she reserves the right to change her mind.
âIf Florida becomes the new New York,â she says, âthen that decision is going to change.â
When it came to deciding what to do for the 2020-21 school year, Samantha Billington (left, with daughter Alanah and son Travis), chose online options.
Samantha Billington –Â Pasco eSchool
Samantha Billington didnât have just one decision to make, she had two.
Her son, 11-year-old Travis, enjoyed his online learning experience last spring when he could no longer attend Union Park Academy.
Her daughter, 15-year-old Alanah, not so much.
As a high schooler at Wesley Chapel High (WCH), Alanah was eager to get back to school to be with her friends. Initially, Samantha thought she would keep Travis home, and let her daughter return to traditional school.
But, the news on Covid-19 just got worse.
âAs time went on and we not only had a rise in cases but also a tragic loss of a boy that went to the same school as (Alanah), we decided it was best to postpone the traditional school setting,â Samantha said. âMy kids going to school, being in a building with thousands of people five days a week just doesnât make me feel comfortable.â
That was âheartbreakingâ for Alanah, who will do mySchool this fall, with the hopes of returning to the WCH campus in January. But, Travis will do Pasco eSchool, and Samantha said he already has decided he wants to do that for the whole school year.
âWe chose FLVS (Florida Virtual School) because we wanted a wider range of options,â Samantha said. âIt is all winging it at this point, and we will adjust as needed.â
Samantha is able to work from home, so it made sense for the kids to learn at home. She is confident her children can still have normal social lives via technology and with friends in the neighborhood.
âThis virus is not going to just disappear,â Samantha said. âIt will be around for a long time and until we have trusted environments, like enforced social distancing and regular sanitizing, or a medical solution, then I feel very confident it will remain an issue.â
