Wake principal scrambles with hiring, facility plans for post-pandemic return to the classroom

Getting ready for a new school year is always busy. This year it is off the charts. Administrators and teachers are scrambling to prepare to teach effectively, both in person and online, all while keeping students and staff safe.

“It is a very stressful time, as you can probably figure out. We spent two hours figuring out how kids were going to get lunch,” said Millbrook Magnet High School Principal Dana King.

Next, King will work through how her building will be laid out to keep people at a distance to avoid spreading coronavirus, how to assure that students learning online have the technology they need, and hiring and training enough teachers to deliver the curriculum.

"Within the last hour, I have had to create a Virtual Academy coordinator position, a COVID-19 coordinator," King said "And when I say create, I have to pick somebody and say, 'You're it.'"

She is planning for a school year with many unknowns. One of the biggest is the question of how many students will show up. King says she doesn't know yet how many students will be enrolled at Millbrook and how many will choose the Wake County Virtual Academy.

“One of the things we are working on is developing a brand new master schedule with numbers of students we don't have yet," she said.

Through Friday, about a third of the students who enrolled at Millbrook last year have opted for the Virtual Academy, but families still have time to change their minds.

“It could change again. It will change again,” King said.

Still, she is confident.

"We will get it all done," she said. "My goal is to make it look flawless on Aug. 17."

King and other Millbrook High administrators provide regular updates live on Facebook.

Charles Patton, Millbrook assistant principal, said they use the time to answer questions from parents, all while working hard to get to the answers themselves.

"It has been some late nights trying to get everything sorted out," he said.

“We are really super-committed to getting this as right as we can,” King said.