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ALTON - Since the announcement that all public and private schools in the state of Illinois would be closed back in March, and with subsequent announcements that they would remained closed for the rest of the academic year, it's been quite a different world for the schools as they come up with ways to implement online classes and ways to keep in contact with students.
At Marquette Catholic High School, the faculty and staff are carrying on in their mission to educate their students and be a positive force in their lives despite the students not being in the halls or classrooms as the 2019-20 academic year is nearing its end, a year unlike any other in history.
In recent interviews, students and faculty talked about how things have changed for the Marquette community and what they hope will happen going forward.
"Now here we are at the end of our sixth week, and we will not be coming back into school this school year," said Marquette principal Mike Slaughter, "and no one really expected that. So all of a sudden, you had teachers who were used to a certain way of teaching, that being mostly being within a classroom, face-to-face, interacting with students. And now all of a sudden, without any in-service, without any preliminaries, they were all of a sudden told 'OK, now, you've got to take everything you know about teaching, throw it out the window,' and now, you've got to do it this way, which this way being distance learning, E-learning, whatever you want to call it. So now, all of the teaching is being done via Zoom or whatever else, whatever platform they are using, and it's an entirely different way of teaching."
Slaughter gave much credit to his faculty for making the adjustments, and he feels confident that if another crisis forces the closing of school in the future, the teachers will be ready.
"I've gotta say this, we here at Marquette, we've done a pretty good job," Slaughter said. "Have we had some issues? Absolutely, we've had some issues, but overall, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback, and we know if that if this ever happens in the future, short-term, long-term, that we will be much better off, and much better prepared, because of what we went through this time."
Still, there's no substitute for the daily interaction with the students, and it's something the principal misses very much.
"We got into this, because we wanted to go into the classrooms, and be face-to-face and be right there with the kids," Slaughter said. "And you know, we miss the kids. And you know, some of them may not have thought of this at the time, but they miss us, too. They miss their teachers, they miss the whole concept of going to school. So that's easy. What do we miss most? The kids."
It's something that a staff member misses as well, and it's been a difficult adjustment to make without the kids being in school every day.
"I miss just the noise, and the smells of the school," said campus minister Paula Mattix-Wand. "The school bells are still ringing every day, so there is some sense of order. But it's very strange to hear the bells, and then not hear the noise of the students out in the hallways, the doors opening and closing. The silence is just really pronounced throughout the school day."
The students miss being in school and interacting with their friends in person and being involved in extracurricular activities just as much.
"I had an amazing time with the drama club," said senior student Tyler Pulliam, "and students. I met a lot of new friends, and, you know, I just came home all of a sudden after about third quarter, and it's just pretty much stay at home all day, doing homework in my room, and that was just basically it for my senior year. Now, it's like really, really boring, and I would be here right now during school, and keeping my friendships, and I am like keeping my friendships, and it's great. But it would be so much better if I would be here for the entire year."
Fellow senior Ashley Koelker has missed out on being involved in plays and planning the senior prom in addition to other activities.
"If I were still here, I was on the prom committee," Koelker said, "and we would have had the musical by now. Our last show, it would have been nice to finish that. I have been missing out on some campus ministry, some of the rosaries, doing them in person, and some of the side club meetings, and the stuff we were planning to do. And Art Club, we were going to have the art show, which actually was going to be a week after quarantine started, so we missed out on that."
As with Pulliam, Koelker misses being able to be with her friends in person, but still communicates with them via 21st Century technology. But even with that, there's still no substitute for being there in person.
"Since I've been at home, I don't see my friends a lot," Koelker said. "and if I do see them, it's on like FaceTime or something, or I'll text them a lot. So I'm definitely missing out on a lot of conversations with my friends, and a lot of talks. And it's a lot harder to learn with classes and that, because they're all online, or FaceTimes, so I'm not getting as much, and the classes are shorter, and not as often. So there's a human aspect you're just missing. You need that contact."
A big part of the spring is the prom, and Slaughter is concerned that this year's senior class might miss out on a great tradition.
"My wife and I have gone to approximately 45 straight proms," Slaughter said. "And we still love going to them; of course, I go to all of them, because I'm an administrator, and I go to all the proms. Well, before that, I was a teacher, but before that, we were students here at Marquette. We went to our proms. This is an annual rite of passage, and I got to go through that when I was 17, 18 years old. That's what the kids are missing, especially the seniors. Our juniors, keep our fingers crossed, may very well have a prom next year as seniors. But this year's seniors, if we don't have one. Now we have rescheduled it for June, but there's no guarantees. So if we have a prom, great. But if we don't, they just missed out on an annual rite of passage. and that's a shame for them."
Another annual ceremony that's in jeopardy is graduation, and Slaughter is also concerned that the commencement exercises won't be able to be held, either.
"And then, you take graduation," Slaughter said. "I graduated from Marquette in 1974, my wife graduated in 1975. My daughter graduated in 1998, a son in '01, and a son in '03. And not to mention we both have family members, parents and grandparents, possibly, or aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers who went to Marquette and graduated. These current seniors possibly will not be allowed to experience a graduation. We did, weeks ago, reschedule graduation for July. And I am still holding out hope that by July, we might have a graduation. But if we don't, then again, the seniors missed out on that."
Another thing that's missing is the spring sports seasons being cancelled because of the pandemic. The Illinois High School Association cancelled the seasons and the state tournament series in all spring sports in a vote of the Board of Directors on April 21, ending the athletic season for all Explorer teams.
"Then you talk about their senior year of spring sports," Slaughter said. "Many of our students play spring sports. Again, for the juniors, sophomores and freshmen, they may be able to play next year, or the following year. Our seniors, it's been taken away, and they'll never get it back. I was talking to a buddy of mine; he was a year behind me in school here at Marquette, and in the spring, we both played on the baseball team together. And I was saying to him, 'could you imagine had we missed out on, in my case, senior year, of baseball? Could you imagine missing your junior year, or the following year, if you were to miss your senior year of baseball?' It would have been devastating. So, it's hard for us adults to really realize just how devastating this is on these kids, because the social aspects, the athletic aspects. These are important to these kids, too. And that's what they're missing out on."
Athletic Director Jack Holmes expressed similar sympathies for the seniors who are missing out on their final year of athletics due to the cancellation of the seasons.
"Boy, right now, it's just so important," Holmes said. "It's kind of like someone getting ready for their wedding, and about two or three weeks away from the wedding, you cancel it. You know, what a disappointment. That's kind of what I look at it like, and I feel so bad for the kids. I come in every day, and try to keep things going here in this department, but it's so strange not having games, and I feel bad. For those of us who played athletics, and for all those who are playing athletics now, that's a big part of their life. And so, it's kind of a double disappointment. It's OK if you don't have to go to school for a while, because school's important and necessary, but when it comes to athletics, you look forward to it, you want to play the games, and you want to be out there. So, when you don't get to do that, it's kind of like a double disappointment. It's terrible."
If there's some sort of positive message for the Class of 2020, it's that what happened isn't anyone's fault, and they didn't do anything wrong.
"My message for these seniors is it's not your fault; you did nothing wrong," Slaughter said. "It wasn't done to you, it just happened to be your class. But there's nothing you can do about it, there's nothing we can do about it, and really, if nothing else, you've got to focus, and you've got to take care of those things which you can control. This pandemic is something you have no control over, we have no control over and what has happened to you is a shame. But again, you've got to move on, you've got to look to the future, the past is the past, and again, think about controlling those things in your life which you can control.
Holmes' advice to the seniors is that although something bad did happen, there's a bright future ahead for them, and plenty to look forward to.
"I would say you're young," Holmes said. "The best part of your life lies in front of you. And as great a disappointment as this is, just keep the faith, and know that down the road, the best part of your life is still ahead of you. You're going to have lots of time in your life for athletics, more education, many of you will get married, you'll have children. Gosh, there's a lot of wonders out there facing you in your life. Just be happy that you're still alive, and that you're in the greatest country in the world, and that there's a lot of great things laying out there for you."
And as the final weeks draw near, Mattix-Wand feels bad that the seniors didn't get the chance to participate in some of the school's year-end traditions. But she's also looking ahead to their futures as well.
"To not see them every day, and celebrate every day, that final two weeks is so important," Mattix-Wand said. "It kind of begins with their senior mission project, and they didn't get to do that at all, or do Bucket Brigade, and help the poor in the Riverbend area. So that was a big hole that they didn't get to participate with the joy of prom and graduation. But even though they don't have those memories, they're still Explorers, they're still a part of the Marquette family, and our history of our school is still going to be written by this class, and this year, that there was such a hole in their experiences. So, I love them all, and we miss them so much, and hopefully, when they come back around Christmastime from college, their first semester, that we will have bigger reunions then."
Charles Thomas also contributed to this story.
