Educators say 2 years after start of pandemic, morale is still suffering in schools
EDGEWATER, N.J. - It's been two years since our lives got thrown into chaos because of COVID, and many are still working to recover from the uncertainty of it all, including public school teachers and staff.
CBS2s Vanessa Murdock reports that while from the outside, our schools seem to have returned to normal, on the inside, morale still suffers.
"We loved our jobs. We were good at what we did. We knew how exactly to get the job done ... And then it all changed," said Amanda Jaggi, who has been a teacher in New Jersey for 21 years.
From Zoom to social distancing with masks on, and now masks optional, Jaggi says the job was never easy, and it got so much harder. It still is.
"We kind of became, like, contact tracers and nurses," she said. "There's teacher shortages. There's no subs."
As a result, workloads continue to be greater than pre-pandemic levels and uncertainty continues to weigh heavily on staff.
"It's not back to normal, you know. It just isn't," Jaggi said. "Morale right now is really low. We've had a lot of teachers resign who I never thought in a million years would resign, like people who loved teaching."
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"Pandemic was hard. It definitely changed the dynamic in which we work with the kids," said licensed social worker Maureen Eigenfeld.
For 10 years, Eigenfeld helped New York City school students navigate a complicated world, one that became exponentially more complicated when COVID hit.
"The kids had full access to us, like, almost 24/7," she said. "I would do sessions sometimes at, like, midnight with the kids because that may be the only time that they were able to have some privacy."
Students still reach out after school. Pre-pandemic boundaries are not back. Communication between students is strained, and between teachers, too. Social skills took a real hit.
"I think we're all struggling to still find that idea of normalcy during the school year," Eigenfeld said.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. says, still, teachers did whatever had to be done to keep students safe and ensure their education.
"Including driving to student's houses and dropping stuff off," he said. "These are your heroes. These are the people who really have kept our children safe throughout the pandemic."
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Despite low morale, both Jaggi and Eigenfeld say they're not going anywhere and share recent activities planned with colleagues for the benefit of their students give them hope for a happier future in public education.
"Some of us who have been there a really long time, we were like, listen, we just have to, like, make ourselves happy. You know, we can't wait for anything, so we're just trying to do fun things for the kids, bring some joy back into the building," Jaggi said.
Through another difficult school year as we mark the second year of the pandemic.
Mulgrew told CBS2 that in mid-April, teachers will have a direct meeting with elected officials and the board of regents to share what they've been through, what challenges they face now and what they need for a successful future.
