MARSHALL — The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed how area schools operate — but the challenges they’re facing now go beyond technology.

A group of southwest Minnesota school superintendents said they’ve seen the pandemic take a toll on both students’ and teachers’ mental health.

“It’s been a great year, but it’s been a tough year,” said Ryan Nielsen, superintendent of Canby Public Schools. Although teachers and students were able to adapt to the changes, Nielsen said he’s worried it will be hard to retain and recruit teachers after the past year.

Representatives from the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative and the Canby, Murray County Central and Windom School Districts spoke with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in a Friday conference call. 

Klobuchar said COVID-19 has had a big impact on education across the country.

“I’m so glad we see the light at the end of the tunnel” with vaccinations, she said. But at the same time, pandemic response is also about planning for the future. “A big piece of it is making sure our schools are in the right place.”

One thing the COVID pandemic has done is highlight the need for broadband internet access, as students switched to distance learning. There are still around 144,000 households in Minnesota that don’t have access to high-speed internet, Klobuchar said.

She said that’s why it was a positive thing that the COVID relief in the American Rescue Plan included funding for broadband infrastructure. Broadband funding was also part of “what I’m excited about for this infrastructure package,” Klobuchar said.

Area superintendents said the pandemic did highlight the need for better internet access — or any access at all — in rural Minnesota.

“Some of our students don’t have access to broadband,” Nielsen said. Both he and MCC Superintendent Joe Meyer said there are places in their districts where even getting a reliable cell phone signal is tough. It makes tools like mobile wi-fi hotspots less helpful for students, they said.

Meyer said MCC also had to work to make sure students had the devices they needed to switch to remote learning.

“When the pandemic hit last spring . . . not all of our students had devices,” he said.

With the exception of a two-week stretch in November, Meyer said MCC has been able to hold in-person classes this year. While about 50 students opted for distance learning, Meyer said, the pandemic has highlighted that in-person learning is best for most students.

“Canby has been more fortunate than other (districts) this year,” in that they’ve been able to hold classes in person this year, Nielsen said. “Every space we had, we spread students out into,” including gymnasiums and shop areas, he said. But even with face-to-face learning, flexibility and technology were important for learning this year.

Nielsen said about 100 out of Canby’s 570 students were learning remotely on Friday, although that number changes depending on COVID-19 exposures. He said Canby also has around 35 to 40 students who opted for distance learning this year.

Perhaps an even bigger issue facing Minnesota schools is the effect that the pandemic has had on students’ and teachers’ mental health, superintendents said.

“Stress has taken a huge toll” on staff in Canby, Nielsen said. He was concerned it may become harder to keep teachers in the district, and make it even harder to recruit new teachers. And if more students choose to attend online schools in the future, it could decrease enrollment at area school districts, he said.

Meyer said he has had MCC staff members either quit or retire early, due to the stress of teaching over the past year. He said teachers are also seeing the emotional toll that the pandemic has taken on kids. Wayne Wormstadt, superintendent of Windom Schools, said his district was looking at a shortage of summer school teachers, after the stress of the past school year.

Nielsen said there needs to be more focus on retaining teachers and promoting education careers.

As difficult as the past year has been, “There is something good coming out of this too,” Wormstadt said. In Windom, “We’ve been forced to think differently” about how to reach students, he said. Distance learning technology could even become a valuable tool for school districts. Windom could experiment with regularly offering some hybrid model classes in the future, he said.

Meyer and Nielsen said their districts were looking at doing similar things. Meyer said offering a virtual academy could be good for students who want distance learning, and still keep them enrolled in their home district. Even after the pandemic, distance learning technology could also be helpful for kids who are homebound for other health reasons, Nielsen said.

“Unfortunately, kids may no longer have a snow day,” he said.