The Hypothesis

Back on July 12, 2021, a piece ran in New York Magazine by David Wallace-Wells entitled “The Kids Are Alright” that led with CDC findings around COVID-19 mortality rates for children. The findings indicated that the mortality risk for children is greater for the flu than it is for COVID-19, including the Delta variant.

In this episode, we begin looking at data around COVID for young people, but then bring those data into our school and community to understand how we should be making decisions about our whole community, not just our school.

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This podcast is produced by "Protect the Pack Productions" at Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

This season, Season 2, we will take you back behind the curtains as the Delta Variant of COVID-19 presents new challenges and we explore the oftentimes conflicting desires, politics and directives that meet with a community's desire to educate students to the highest and best of our ability.

You'll meet parents, teachers, staff, local health officials and students to help bring to life some of the excitement we experience each day along with the real challenges and tradeoffs that keep us working late each night.

These issues are by nature controversial and we are very aware that  our school community is not monolithic. In no way do we intend to make political statements or provoke arguments. Our bias here is simply around making decisions that will allow the greatest number of students the highest level of education that we can provide. Aside from that, our goal is simply to take you into the decisions themselves as we face them, and do our best to explain why we are making them. In the end, we are not perfect, but we work incredibly hard and our main focus is on the education of our students, taking all health and safety precautions into consideration.

Our first episodes will focus on the science around children and COVID, online education and how and when we switch classes to a hybrid of online and in-person. We will plan to post new episodes every Tuesday for the run of the season.

We hope that you'll join us, share the episodes and help us to grow a deep and productive dialogue.

Stay safe out there and as always, Protect the Pack! 

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

On Monday, March 8, 2021, the New Mexico Secretary of Education announced that schools should resume full, in-person learning by April 5, 2021. 

In this episode, Head Administrator Chris Eide records a short, early morning audio message to a friend detailing  the confluence of factors that must be resolved in order for the school to successfully reopen as well as some of the most elusive challenges that he is anticipating.

We hope that you enjoy this candid moment amid an optimistic time.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter Schools, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

We are wrapping this season of "The Hypothesis" with an interview with New Mexico Secretary of Education, Dr. Ryan Stewart, regarding governance of an entire state's education programme during this global pandemic. This podcast, over 11 episodes, has focused on the challenge of governance and leadership at a school that, as a charter school, has the freedom to make decisions apart from a district context. This last episode zooms us out from our school to talk about those challenges at the state level.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

The most important component of a lesson is often the first one to go in this virtual context. In this episode, I am joined by TTCS teacher Mark Kolokoff to discuss what is happening in class if it isn't independent practice, and how to think about moving forward.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

In this episode, we spend a moment with a person who became a part of our school community in Santa Fe from all the way in Bangalore, India because of the pandemic. Geared toward young people who might be feeling the drone of repetition, this is a reminder that creative and connective moments can happen anywhere and at any time as long as you are open to finding them.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

In this episode, we investigate the role that suspicion plays in our interactions with one another and with institutions. Over the first many weeks of school, COVID-19 did not find its way into the school building, suspicion came in at the beginning and never left. You will meet Nurse Jennie, who has led the work to do contact tracing for students and families and has worked closely with the suspicion that people have with how close COVID-19 has come to those inside the building.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

In this episode, we follow up on the previous week in which Kindergarten was brought back to in-person learning in a hybrid model. This week, one week later, we had to shut the program down again. Go behind the scenes to hear about why and how it all unfolded.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Months of planning and preparation culminated in the arrival of our Kindergarten students who were willing and able to participate in in-person learning. On their first day, the Governor was also scheduled to make an announcement about new health orders. Rising COVID-19 rates across the state had people believing that she would shut schools back down. For the Kindergartners and the teachers, that would mean closing down just as they were starting back up. The teachers who had built the instructional plan for in-person learning were also going through waves of excitement and the anxiety that accompanies a public health threat.

This episode introduces you to two of our Kindergarten teachers as well as our Elementary Principal and takes you into the moments leading up to and through that first day back.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  

In this episode, launched on the first day back for Kindergarten in a hybrid model, which coincides with a midday press conference from Governor Lujan Grisham where the announcement to shut all schools down may be made, we look at the confluence of school-level and state-level planning.

In particular, we look at how a myriad of forces may come together in a way as to make a lifelong Democrat/Independent person sound like Republican Vice President Mike Pence. Special guests this week include former New Mexico Secretary of Education Christopher Ruszkowski and Executive Director of Public Charter Schools of New Mexico, Matt Pahl.

Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico.