March 16
March 17
March 18
Justice declares statewide state of emergency First daily student lunch distribution in Mon County
WV restaurant dining rooms, bars, health clubs, and gyms close WVU moves remainder of semester online
WV becomes 50th state with a confirmed COVID-19 case
the Byerses predicted. And it happened so suddenly that Bartini Prime and all the other restaurants were caught with coolers full of food. As the week rolled on, whether they were offering free lunches or not, restaurants had to decide whether it would be worth it to stay open for curbside and delivery. And meanwhile, the numbers of lunches families were showing up for at schools and bus stops exploded: 650 on Monday, 1,770 on Tuesday, 2,700 on Wednesday. Brian Kiehl, who heads up nutrition services for Monongalia County Schools, was stunned. “We normally provide around 6,500 lunches and 4,000 breakfasts a day,” Kiehl says. “But at our open feeding sites in the summer, it’s almost nonexistent. Less than 100 a day. We were thinking this was going to be more like summer.” When families showed up at schools for 4,000 meals on Thursday, Harvey started thinking maybe she should take all of the people who were messaging offers of help seriously. Teaching scramble Of course, school is not mainly about lunch. When this is all over, students need to be able to get promoted to the next grade, take challenging college admissions tests, graduate and be prepared for college. After schools closed suddenly starting March 16, teachers had to figure out how to do distance learning—fast. “Before we left we’d started reading an abridged version of The Iliad , and I knew they wouldn’t be able to find this version online anywhere,” says Morgantown High School (MHS) 9th grade honors English teacher Jennifer Secreto. “I had to learn how to scan the document, send it to my email, and download it.” Then she uploaded it to the school district’s online learning management system, Schoology.
WVU lighting and sound design professor Alan McEwen teaches an advanced lighting course online. WVU Dance Coordinator Yoav Kaddar demonstrates for ballet students in front of his computer. The costuming program in WVU's School of Theatre and Dance made masks for health care workers, and high school family and consumer science students baked at home and submitted photos to their teacher.
56 wvl • the community issue 2020
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