Education is often engineered to provide structure and familiarity in students’ lives, but going to school in 2020 was anything but routine.

Since March, administrators, teachers, students and parents have been contending with adjustments just about every day, from remote learning, to fluctuating schedules, to ever-evolving safety regulations.

But despite the onslaught of challenges, many members of the local education community saw 2020 as a learning opportunity rather than a setback.

“Change in any capacity is hard, but it’s not always bad,” said Matt Jensen, superintendent of Bigfork Schools.

Jensen didn’t sugarcoat the difficulties that have faced Bigfork Schools for the past semester and a half.

Test scores took a serious nosedive last spring as a result of classes going totally remote for the end of the school year. Conflicting sentiments around mask use spilled over into classrooms, where everyone was required to wear a face covering. And staffing shortages continue to cripple the workforce and prompt unexpected schedule changes.

Yet despite these and tons of other challenges that emerged this year, Jensen said the school setting has largely been a bright spot in the long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s really a pleasure to be in an environment that’s so much more full of hope,” Jensen said, compared to other arenas where the impacts of the pandemic have been more negative.

At Bigfork Schools — whether in person or online — teachers are still teaching and students are still learning. Test scores recovered this fall, generally hitting marks that were on par, if not higher, than previous years on record.

“You come to school and you just see kids being kids,” Jensen said.

JENSEN’S POSITIVITY seems to be shared by many of his counterparts around the valley.

“The joy of school is still present,” noted Dave Wick, superintendent of Columbia Falls School District.

“Of course, this is a year like no other,” said Wick, who took the reins at Columbia Falls this past year. “It’s been kind of a mixed thing. It’s very challenging but also very rewarding and positive.”

What stands out most to administrators such as Wick and Jensen has been the adaptability of the education community. While issues like mask use remain divisive in industries from restaurants to ski resorts, face coverings have already become the norm for just about everyone at school.

“The masks do not deter from our daily activities,” Wick reported. “People were all worried, but it’s just become part of what we do. I look out my window at recess, and kids are out there enjoying themselves.”

Jensen, too, was impressed with how smoothly students in Bigfork adjusted to wearing masks in class. He recognized the variety of opinions on mask use among different families in the district and cited this polarization as one of the most trying aspects of navigating the current school year.

But while those differences might cause disruptions at home or out in the community, Jensen said conflicts around masks have been virtually nonexistent in the school setting.

“It’s not a big deal to the students,” he said. Out of about 900 students throughout the district, he could only point to a couple of notable incidents involving masks so far this year.

SUCH A collaborative effort to avoid disruptions in class has helped schools around the valley stay open as much as possible this semester.

“I’m pleased that all the schools have been able to stay open this fall,” said Jack Eggensperger, superintendent of schools for Flathead County.

Although he recognized that some schools have “had their moments” with temporary closures, he was relieved that all of the local schools remained open at the end of the year.

“They’ve all done an outstanding job of being flexible and being creative: administrators, teachers, school boards, everybody,” Eggensperger said.

He credited community efforts with helping to save the school year this fall. In order to keep classes running, classrooms have depended on emergency substitutes around the community stepping up to fill in while teachers are out sick or in quarantine.

In the last two months, Eggensperger said Flathead County fingerprinted about 150 people who came out of the woodwork and offered to substitute as teachers or support staff in local schools.

“It’s been amazing the response,” he said. “They aren’t necessarily qualified teachers, they’re just willing to help out, throw their name in the hat.”

IN THE new year, all three administrators said they’re hopeful the COVID-19 vaccine will finally help schools return to a semblance of normalcy once the immunization is available to teachers.

“It’s been a long, hard year,” Eggensperger said. “I just think 2021 is going to be better.”

But they are also wary they might not be out of the woods yet.

In Bigfork, Jensen worried that the coming months could be some of the most challenging months of the entire pandemic because many people are growing weary of staying home and being extra-vigilant about safety precautions.

“January and February could be our most trying months,” Jensen predicted. “It’s going to take everybody’s one last gasp here.

“It could be a pretty long fourth-quarter push,” he cautioned.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at 758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.