The biggest challenge school board members will face when schools reopen in the fall won’t involve mask policies or air circulation issues, said Soledad O’Brien. The biggest issue will be acclimating kids back into the world and re-engaging them with school. Students will need help dealing with the trauma of the past year, “some because they were directly impacted by the pandemic and some because life has been in chaos for them.”

Soledad O’Brien, an award-winning journalist, documentarian, author, and philanthropist, spoke at NSBA 2021’s second general session Friday. She gave a wide-ranging talk, starting with her experiences as a local broadcast reporter in San Francisco, where her first live shot in a bar full of sports fans watching a San Francisco Giants playoff game, she said, “was a disaster.”

One of her worse memories was when she was sent to do a story of a man who believed his cat was a reincarnation of his dead roommate. “I actually did the live shot holding the cat in my arms,” she said.

She discussed the relentless news cycle that didn’t allow for nuanced reporting. She reflected on how her live reporting from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina showed her “how much contextual reporting was required and how much understanding of circumstances was required. That gave me a sense of urgency about how there were these important stories to tell, and maybe I could be part of telling some of those stories.”

O’Brien anchors and produces the Hearst Television political magazine program Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien. She played a clip of her documentary, “Education in American,” that showed students getting ready to compete in a robotics competition.

“I look at that clip, and I think about all the things in school that used to energize kids,” she said. “Sports and theater and proms and pep rallies and interacting with compassionate adults who care about their successes around things like robotics. All of that to some degree has been put on hold or is not operating fully.”

The lack of in-person learning is causing students to disengage from their studies and their schools. O’Brien noted that all students were losing connections and learning through the pandemic, but Black and Hispanic students were being disproportionately affected.

“These are things that are realities,” she said of the consequences of the pandemic on students and schools. “We have to really think about what the answers are because those realities fall very squarely on the shoulders of the school board.”

A bright spot is that students have seen the examples set by educators and school leaders. “You rose to the challenge, and they've seen your resilience, and they've seen your perseverance, and they’ve seen your grit. They see what you've been able to do day in and day out. That speaks volumes.”