The Daily - Odessa, Part 1: The School Year Begins

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

Odessa is a four-part audio documentary series about one West Texas high school reopening during the pandemic — and the teachers, students and nurses affected in the process.For the past six months, The New York Times has documented students’ return to class at Odessa High School from afar through Google hangouts, audio diaries, phone calls and FaceTime tours. And as the country continues to debate how best to reopen schools, Odessa is the story of what happened in a school district that was among those that went first.All episodes of the show released so far are available here. 

Today, as the country continues to debate how best to reopen schools amid the pandemic, we begin a special series about what happened in a school district that was among the first to try. It was freezing this morning. I'm sorry, let's go to my office. Whoa, what's under that? On a crisp Friday last October... Does anybody need deodorant? I have spray on deodorant. Man, Holly, you're breathing hard. It's cucumber. Do you care? Because I got tired of smelling like coconut.

A notably normal scene was playing out in the old band hall of a high school in West Texas. School had just let out for the day, and the members of the Odessa High Marching Band were getting ready for their first game of the season. Do I need to suck it in? Probably. There we go. Good job. And they were giddy.

Ow! You zipped up my hair! Ow! Yeah, you zipped me up! As they pulled on their new bright red uniforms. Then filed out the door to board the bus waiting outside. There's one spot left. And as the bus made its seven-mile journey across town to the stadium. Oh, we gotta do our song, our tradition.

They sang. And a little beamer with the red top down. Dogs were all barking and wagging around. Got sentimental about the passage of time. It feels like just yesterday I came in as a freaking freshman. I didn't know how to play. Sitting on this bus going down this street to Ratliff. And briefly. Discussed current events.

You can't just give up your whole life because of that. I mean, you've got to keep cautious. You can't just sit there and go, oh, I'm not going to. Listening in on these students, that discussion was kind of the only indication of the strangeness of this year. In every other way, the ride was remarkable for just how unremarkable it was. Hi, Mom. Did I show you the nose ring? My mom won't let me get it. I tried the filter and the sun to make my nose look big. Because as other high school students across the country were logging off their computers

for the evening, finishing up another day of remote learning from their beds or their kitchen tables, these students unconsciously were participating in something of an experiment. All the way back before the beginning of the school year, Texas was one of just four states to mandate that public schools must offer in-person learning, making possible moments like these reminders of what so many other students have had to sacrifice this year. Ladies and gentlemen, the Eckerd County School of Business and Odessa High School are proud to present the award-winning Odessa High School Bronco Marketing Band. But it would only be a couple of weeks later, in the aftermath of a moment of normalcy just like this one, after a bus ride just like this one, that it would become clear that the story of Odessa High School this year,

like the story of all school reopenings, is a story of trade-offs. And I said, shut down both buses, quarantine all students. If it were up to the health department and it gets to that level, they're going to want to shut the entire band down. And that this experiment was going to get a little more complicated. As far as I could tell, we were prepared. We just didn't realize that we were not. From the New York Times, I'm Annie Brown. This is Odessa.

We are not throwing our kids' bodies, our teachers' bodies in front of COVID to stop it. Virtual school, 38 years teaching, does not work. This is unsafe. We should not be in those school buildings. The risk of spread in schools is low, and the harm that we are doing to our children is high. While more and more schools across the country are attempting to reopen their doors,

Odessa High School has been open since August. And for the past six months, we've been reporting remotely, through Google Hangouts and audio diaries, through phone calls and FaceTime tours, documenting what happened as the experiment unfolded. Today, in part one, the school year begins in Odessa. Do you remember the first time you visited Odessa? The first time you saw it? Yeah, so I was coming in for a job interview to go meet with the board of trustees, and I remember flying into the airport and I rented a car and then drove to the city of Odessa. And the further I drove, the less

interested I became because I was looking to my left and looking to my right and it just didn't look like Houston or Atlanta or Charlotte or any place that I'd ever been. This is the superintendent of the school district in Odessa, Texas. His name is Scott Meary. And before this job, he had worked in school districts in several big cities with large budgets and large metropolitan areas. Odessa, Texas was not that. So a colleague of mine made a statement, oh, you're moving to the land of no trees. And I was like, who mean there's no trees? And oh,

yeah, there are no trees out there. Oh, sure enough, there are not a lot of trees in this area. It is flat. Did you see like oil rigs and things like that? Everywhere. Oil rigs everywhere. You know, this town is embedded in an oil field. Odessa sits on the most productive oil field, not just in Texas or the United States, but in the world. Production had been booming for several years when Scott visited. And still, over half of the kids in the school district qualified for free or reduced price lunch. But then when I unpacked the situation and looked at the needs, you know, this is one of the lowest-performing districts in Texas that had the potential to be taken over by the state of Texas.

Because it was doing so poorly. Yeah, correct. Academically, yes, yes, yes. Confronting challenges was not something new for Scott. He had recently led a school district in Houston through the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and he had a demonstrated track record of helping to close achievement gaps. And so before the 2019 school year, the district in Odessa wanted him to come in and turn it around. The problem-solver in me, you know, that's an interesting challenge.

You know, if I could do something to help prevent that, that's interesting to me. So despite the no trees and the oil rigs everywhere, he took the job. This was a board that recognized their school district is in crisis, and they're willing to do whatever it takes. Of course, they had no idea then that they'd be facing a much greater crisis than they'd imagined. Within months, COVID hit and schools scrambled to transition to remote learning. And Scott watched as his students slid even further behind. In fact, we have evidence that suggests that especially our kids of poverty, and this is across the country, could have lost up to one year of learning.

It just can't happen. And so even though the COVID numbers in Odessa were higher than in much of the country, with the positivity rate climbing to 19% during the summer, when the governor of Texas announced that public schools were required to offer in-person instruction, Scott was on board. Our kids were already behind their peers across the state. And we as a system have to be committed to bringing as many of our kids back in a face-to-face environment as we can.

So late last summer, as the district prepared to phase students back into the classroom, Scott agreed to let us follow along. But if we see numbers in any area starting to increase because of actions that we've taken as a school district, then we will reverse our course. We've told our folks all along, you know, yes, we're turning school on face-to-face, but we could just as easily turn it off over a weekend. All right. All right, ladies, appreciate you. Thank you so much. You guys have a good rest of the day. All right. You too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. One of the first people the district connected us to was a teacher, a teacher who's sort of on

the front lines of this mission to not let students fall further behind this year. It's August 12, 2020. First day of school. I'm actually calm this morning. On the drive to work, I was jamming to the radio, singing along. People were looking at me weird. I don't care. It was good. Deep breaths. Yeah, ready or not, the kids are going to show up. Some. This is Naomi, or better known as Miss Fuentes. Let me tell you, love the face shield. You know why? Because I don't have to worry about my hair. So super fast to get ready in the morning. Just put it up in a bun. A relentlessly cheery college prep teacher at Odessa High School who started sending us audio diaries and hopping on Google Meets as she got ready for classes to begin. Let me show you around the room so you can kind of see what we have to do.

So let me flip the camera. Okay, please excuse the Blair Witch vibe going on. I, or my husband, I should say, put up a clear shower curtain around my desk. So when I have to conference with my students, there's at least a little barrier. She had created a protected space around her desk and got some special supplies. We've got some cleaner, sanitizer, tissues. But what I immediately noticed on our Google Hangout was just her special touch. Is that a tombstone that I see behind you? Yes. On the floor, there's a rest in peace tombstone on the wall.

It says mausoleum. I have a Chucky doll, decorate him for every season. And y'all should see my dolls. They're scary. My dolls are scary. And they're even noise-sensored, so when you slam a door, they'll speak. Naomi loves morbid things, but can't quite explain why. Maybe if I analyze myself, it's the whole parents being strict on religion thing,

and I'm, like, rebelling. But I love it. And people always mess with me. They're like, well, you're the happiest dark person I know. But behind this cheeriness, behind the tombstones and the 64-ounce bottle of hand sanitizer... Yeah, I'm really scared, nervous, overwhelmed, don't know what to expect.

She's scared. Naomi's husband is considered high risk and she has a one-year-old grandbaby at home who recently had heart surgery but like Scott she has her own reasons for being on board with this plan did you think about potentially not going back because of how nervous you were actually no, no. Yeah, I don't think I would ever just leave. Even as scared as I am, I wouldn't leave. OHS is my home, and it's OHS and nothing else. Naomi herself went to Odessa High School nearly 30 years ago.

And for as long as she can remember, the school has had a reputation of struggling. Today, not only does Odessa High sit in one of the poorest performing districts in Texas, but based on its test scores and college readiness, it was also ranked in 2019 by an education nonprofit as the third worst high school in the entire state. It's almost like that's how they were raised. You're going to OHS, so that's the sucky school, I guess. And the kids feel that.

The kids, that's been ingrained in our locals' minds here. So despite her fear of the virus, Naomi is determined to show up for her students. I was always told that your body reacts the same when you're nervous and scared and frightened as it does when it's excited. So I'm going to say I'm excited for this new school year and all that it entails. No matter how we're feeling, we got to put the kids first and we got to take care of the kids. And that's what we do naturally. That's why we're teachers, the kids, you know,

we're going to teach the kids. We're going to love the kids. Um, and that's it. Period. Yeah. We'll see what happens. Okay. So many people log in. Let's see. Hello, Kayla. Hello, Jesse. Hello, Delaney. As students start phasing in, Naomi has somewhere between one and eight students who actually show up in the classroom each day. Another dozen or so sign in remotely. I figure I'll put some music on while we wait.

Because while teachers had little choice about returning to the classroom, students and families did. And many of them opted to stay home. Hello Armando. Hello Val. Which means her job is to straddle teaching the students in person and the students online. Okay. And through her voice memos,

Let's go ahead and get started, we hear how it goes. Okay, Maria, we're going to start with you. Can you read us your quick write? I say no because I'm not too involved with a lot of things. Okay. Honest answer. There you go. That is awesome. There you go. That is awesome. Thank you. Armando!

Is Armando on? I get stressed. Like, you know, my armpits start sweating a little bit. I'm like, are you there? What's going on? Just answer. We'll move on. We'll come back to him later.

Andre, did you get to do the quick write? I don't know what you called that. Gaspard, how about you? In my mind, I'm thinking, okay, I know it doesn't take that long to unmute. You're awfully quiet. Hope you didn't go take a nap. Nani, how about you? Dom?

Sorry, bitch, I'm eating a corn dog. Give me sugar. Naomi rarely knows what her students are doing on the other side of the screen, because they almost always have their videos off. Bill! Bill showed up. Okay, Bill, all we did was we watched the... My steps are not working. My computer... And she doesn't require videos to be on, because it would take too much bandwidth.

39% of kids in the school district don't have access to reliable internet. Yes, mom, like nothing. It's not letting me do anything. Look. Hmm. Okay. Yeah, that's something weird happening there. For the first several weeks of school, the virtual students are requiring a lot of Naomi's attention. You can see her struggling to figure out how to split her time. Okay, so those of you online, when you're done, just remember Wednesday. Okay, like, it looks like I'm paying attention to both at the same time, when in reality, when I'm focused on answering questions in the chat, I kind of can't worry about the kids in front of me. All right.

So now my face-to-face peeps. Okay, Alexis. I did. And then someone in front of me would ask a question. So I'd step away. I'd be like, okay, I'm going to step away and then go help them. And I would forget. I have kids online still. I don't know if I

mentioned this because it happened Friday but I taught for 10 minutes on mute until one of the kids chirped up in the chat and they were like, is she talking to us or just the kids in the classroom? Ms. White says your screen isn't changing at all. It's not? Okay. Because they couldn't hear me. I was muted the whole time. Can y'all see it now? Yes, ma'am. Awesome. Okay, so let's start over.

Can y'all see it now? Yes, ma'am. Awesome. Okay, so let's start over. By the beginning of October, it was clear that this toggling back and forth between in-person and virtual students was a problem for many teachers across the system. The resounding message coming from district leaders was we have to do better. But Naomi was feeling at a loss for how exactly to do that. Okay, you want us to be up and engaging to the face-to-face kids. I get it.

But most of us, most of us don't know what that looks like. Train us. We've gotten virtual training on how to do that virtually, and we know how to do that face-to-face. But how the hell do you blend it? How the hell do you blend it? There's this, and I'll email it to you. There's this TikTok going around with a clip from Schitt's Creek, which I love that freaking show. Next step is to fold in the cheese. What does that mean? What to fold in the cheese. What does that mean? What does fold in the cheese mean?

You fold it in. It's like the enchilada scene where they're making enchiladas. I understand that, but how do you fold it? Do you fold it in half like a piece of paper and drop it in the pot, or what do you do? David, I cannot show you everything. Okay, well, can you show me one thing? You just... Here's what you do. You just fold it in.

Okay, I don't know how to fold broken cheese like that. And I don't know how to be any clearer. You take that thing that's in your hand... Uh-huh. And you... If you say fold in one more time... It says fold it in! This TikTok is like, this is what we're feeling.

It's what we're feeling. I haven't even seen how it's supposed to look. And maybe I missed an email or I missed a training or something. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I know I say that a lot, but I truly don't know. Of course, she hadn't missed some intensive training. There was no email that could explain how to do this,

leaving teachers like Naomi feeling like they were navigating this for the first time on their own. I don't, it's, I feel very inadequate. I feel like I'm not doing well at all. And I don't know, I don't know what the secret is. That's what is killing me because I'm them. You know, I'm these kids. Like a lot of her students, growing up, no one in Naomi's family had been to college.

And now she teaches students who need a little extra support in getting there. And she knows how the small things, like having a connection with just one teacher, can make the difference. I feel bad because usually I know a lot about all of them, and I don't this year. Like, if I were just to see them in front of me, I'd be like, who are you? Because I've just seen your picture, you know, and that's sad. It's, it's, the magic is not happening. This is not what teaching is. I don't know.

I have that imposter syndrome, like, okay, I don't ever think of myself that way, that I'm great or I'm good, but this has kind of like brought it out in the open, like, see, you're really not that good of a teacher because, look, you can't even adjust to virtual teaching. So, yeah, that's my thought right now. Do you have the sense that other teachers are also struggling? Yes, I do. But I don't know. Even though I know they're struggling, I do.

I know they're struggling. I still feel like I'm not, I'm still not as good as them. Yeah. But I do try to, you know, I do try to be positive. Like I'm all about things will get better. This is just temporary. And as soon as you figure it out, it's, yeah, but it is tough. It's tough to have that, that mentality right now. Yeah. Have you already turned it in, or is that something you need to talk to the teacher about? Or is that something you need to talk to the teacher about? In years past, Naomi says that she's seen her role not just as a teacher,

but as a kind of counselor to her students, too. Are you there? And part of the problem is that now she doesn't even know what's going on in their lives. They won't talk about how they're feeling, but sometimes when they don't show up, either online or in class, that's when I'm like, I wonder what something happened. Because I know oil field is big here. Like, it is so big here.

And so I know the majority of the kids, they're struggling with that. Maybe their dad was laid off of the oil field or it slowed down. My husband wasn't laid off, but's slowed down, way down from what it used to be. They're having to deal with that, having to make extra money for their parents. A lot of them are having to work. A lot of them log in from work if their job lets them. How do you know that kids are working jobs? Well, I can see them when they log in. I'm like, where are you? And they're like, I'm at work because there's stuff happening in the background. They're not in a quiet, still place. I did ask. I did go through and ask all of them. And so I did a little survey. I'm like, hey, do you work? Where do you work? How many hours a week do you work? How unusual is it to have kids working? Was this happening

like that before COVID? No, I don't think so. I don't remember these many kids working. Definitely not during the day. Yeah, no, definitely not. I would, you know, go into work. I would clock in at 12 in the afternoon. And so I'm already in a class. The classes that I don't have to have my camera on or my microphone on,

I would just like have my earbud in and like kind of hide my phone and be in class and then still be working, be making the smoothies or like taking people's orders. For kids like Joanna Lopez, a senior at Odessa High School, the problem with working your first job during class time

is that it's hard to listen to your econ class while trying to remember how to make a mango magic. I always mix up these two orders, which is the Bye Bye and the Berrylicious, because they sound the same, and they look the same. There was this one time, it was really busy. There was like a lot of people waiting on their order and I think I was supposed to be making a Bye Bye. Instead I was making a Berrylicious and that one has like the meal powder and like it has protein and everything and a lot of people are picky about that. There are still people in line screaming at me. I was trying to listen to my teacher.

It was just, it was a lot. It was stressful that day. Did your colleagues know? Yes, because they were also in school. Joanna is one of the students who opted to go remote this year, who was balancing work and school simultaneously. She was 17 when we first started our calls with her. Hello, Joanna.

Hi. Is it still light outside there? Yes. That is amazing. She would sit cross-legged on her bed after school. Her dark, straight hair parted down the middle, frequently checking for notifications from the many group chats she's on. And sounding a lot like any teenager, bored with her hometown.

There's not a lot of things to do here in Odessa. Basically, the only thing there is to do is, like, the mall, or just go to Target and walk around and see what you can find. And when she talks about growing up in Odessa, it's clear that her life has been tied to the cycles of boom and bust that define the city. My dad, ever since I was little, he moved from company to company, but he would be doing the same thing. She remembers her dad coming home from his job in the oil field, his boots smelling of oil. And she remembers noticing when she was 11 or 12 that the industry seemed to be taking off. I mean, there was a point where it was this really big thing where we got a

lot of oil. And so people were making a lot of money, and that's when people were starting to come here for the money. My dad had bought a raise, and I think he got in a higher, like, position. So he was making, like, pretty good money, so we were at a, like, very comfortable spot. How did you know that things were more comfortable? Yeah, um, we used to live in a trailer park, in, like, a duplex. But then there was like a trailer park behind us. So it wasn't really like a good neighborhood to live in because there was a lot of stuff going on. So when my dad got that raise, we were looking into houses and we found one. They moved into a one-story red brick house with an awning over the front door.

Joanna was excited to have her own room for the first time. Did you move to this house that you're in? Yes. I used to think it was so big. And she remembers a shift in the family's approach to everyday things. You know, we didn't really worry about going to the store and be like, we can't afford this or we might not have enough. And so I guess that's when I realized, like, we're good. And this is how things had been for the family for the last few years. Things felt possible. Joanna had been talking about becoming the first member of her family to complete college,

to become a psychologist or a veterinarian. But this, of course, was only one half of the boom-bust cycle. And Odessans are all too familiar with the other half. It's like someone hit the switch, and all of a sudden layoffs already start, all of a sudden the city starts to slow down, and you can literally feel it. Workers skip town, and for-sale signs appear on lawns and in the windows of shops. I think what we're in right now is kind of an emotional free fall. I'd like to have it over with.

Could we please get to where the bottom is? The cycle is so familiar to Odessans that after a particularly bad bust in the 80s, a bumper sticker became popular in town that read, God grant me one more oil boom, and I promise not to screw it up. U.S. oil prices plunged below zero on Monday, hitting a new record low. A penny a barrel. I mean, this is something that most people on the street didn't even think was possible. Never seen anything like it. It closed at negative 37 bucks per barrel.

Wow. But coupled with the public health crisis, nothing had prepared Odessa for the kind of economic devastation the pandemic brought over the summer. The sharp decline in demand for oil and the city's dependency on it meant that as the American economy was shutting down in response to the pandemic, Odessa's was cratering. As of June, we have the highest unemployment rate in the state of Texas. The unemployment rate tonight is the highest in the state, sitting at 13 percent.

Just a stark difference from where we were just a few months ago, having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state sitting at 13%. Just a stark difference from where we were just a few months ago having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. I think I was like in my room doing homework and my dad came home early. He was just like, you know, sad. I kind of just, you know, overhear their conversations because my room is like right next to the living room, so I kind of just overheard., overhear their conversations because my room's, like, right next to the living room, so I kind of just overheard.

Do you remember what you heard? I just remember my dad telling my mom that he got laid off and that he's going to try to get an unemployment. But he was struggling a lot with that, so he was like, might as well just try to look for another job. How did you feel overhearing that in your room? I mean, seeing my dad sad kind of made me sad. I guess that's when I also realized, like, this COVID thing is very serious, you know.

They also kind of told me, like, you need to start working also. And so that's when I started looking for a job. You know, they also kind of told me, like, you need to start working also. And so that's when I started looking for a job. It was late spring when things started getting tight for the Lopez family. So Joanna began working at the smoothie shop to help pay for her car. And when the summer ended and Joanna had a choice to make about whether to go back in person or stay home, she chose to stay home and started signing into classes from behind the smoothie bar. How do you learn anything if you're not actually in the class? I would say I didn't really learn anything. I was kind of there for my attendance. I kind of do struggle a lot with

keeping up with my schoolwork, so I feel like it would have been easier for me to go to school. so I feel like it would have been easier for me to go to school. Yeah, it's very hard for me to try to keep up and so I'm just struggling. Joanna said she had started turning in assignments late or not at all. Do you have the sense that other kids are also turning in stuff late? Yes, I see it all over Snapchat. Like how does it show up on Snapchat? Like they either post their grades.

I'm like that's not something to? Like, they either post their grades. I'm like, that's not something to post. I wouldn't post my grades. I would be embarrassed. I mean, they're not ashamed. Good for them, but... Do you feel shame? Sometimes I do, because I feel like I'm not working hard enough. Is that what you think the problem is that you're not working hard enough? Maybe but then like I don't I can't find the motivation to like sit down and like actually do my schoolwork. Uh-huh. Like you kind of just like lay down and bed on your phone and like I'll just do it later. At the end of the first six weeks of school, Superintendent Scott Murie started to get some actual data back about how kids across the district were doing academically. data back about how kids across the district were doing academically. The grading period ends in a couple of weeks, and we're seeing some data that is a bit disturbing. The learning is not

happening in a way that it should. And what it showed was that what Joanna and the students in Mrs. Fuentes' class were experiencing was happening across the district. The in-person teaching seemed to be helping, but only to an extent. So the failure rate is higher among our virtual kids than it is face-to-face, and that's simply because they're not turning in assignments. We have to continue to exhaust every pathway to figure out how we cut the learning losses for kids and accelerate learning a bit more. It was striking that for a school that had reopened, six weeks into the school year, the problems they were facing were not about the health risks posed by the kids who came back,

but about the learning loss, especially for students who chose to stay home. especially for students who chose to stay home. It wasn't clear what Scott would try and do to change things. But we have to give extra attention to our seniors this year to keep them engaged. Some of them are so close that they may or may not graduate. What was missing for so many students was the motivation. Those seniors that need extra motivation in order to come to school every day, and in this case, in order to turn their computer on, sometimes for those seniors, the motivator is a teacher in the building,

or it is the social interaction that they have in the building, or it is the extracurricular that they engage with in the building. And for some of those kids that are at risk, that doesn't exist. They were missing the points of connection. And I'm afraid it may be a bit easier for those kids just to drop out or fall off the radar. And that is disturbing. This cannot be a reason that our kids fall further and further behind their peers. further behind their peers. But there was one thing that was motivating Joanna to come to school every day. The same thing that would lead her to being on a bus

headed to a stadium on a crisp October Friday. Yeah, I love Ben so much. Coming up on Odessa. Well, our high COVID numbers are triggering some changes around Medical Center Hospital in Odessa. While the city faces a growing health crisis, We continue following the school district's experiment. And the debate not just over reopening schools, but restarting the football season. This specific area,

I mean, you've seen Friday Night Lights, right? So you know this specific area, how important high school football is. I don't think there's any part of this world where it's as important as it is in West Texas. I think that there were too many people invested too heavily in that to actually be able to shut down something that big. So make sure that's part of what you guys are thinking about and what that means to them. Sure. How much that means to them. Yeah, we will

make sure not to miss that. It's a Bronco first down! Odessa is produced and reported by Sindhu Yana Sambandham, Soraya Shockley, and me. With help from Mitch Borden and Diana Nguyen. Edited by Liz O'Balin and Lisa Tobin. Engineered by Chris Wood. Fact-checking by Ben Phelan. Original composition by Dan Powell and Marion Lozano. Thank you. Ken Belson, Laura Kim, Nora Keller, and Lauren Jackson.

Here's what else you need to know today. On Thursday, President Biden celebrated what he called a major milestone in the response to the pandemic. 50 million vaccine doses administered since he took office. Biden has promised to administer 100 million doses in his first 100 days. Today, I'm here to report we're halfway there. 50 million shots in just 37 days since I've become president. That's weeks ahead of schedule. Biden said that with approval of a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson,

expected in the coming days, he has instructed his administration to help the company roll out the vaccine as quickly and as broadly as possible. This is not a victory lap. Everything is not fixed. We have a long way to go. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bilbaro. See you on Monday.