We Are Essential

Hayley’s Story

These days, everyone is trying to keep the fabric of society from unraveling, and many of our friends in the Oklahoma City community have agreed to talk about it. Their views expressed here do not reflect the views of their employers, nor the views of my employer. We are just working together to convey their experiences. 

Our community feature today is this former educator, current lawyer, all-time super person:

The glowing lady in white is Hayley Jones (when she eloped to New Orleans - yes, she’s cooler than the rest of us will ever be).  She has excellent taste in literature, is mom to an adorable rescue dog, has just over a year of marriage under her belt, and is the kind of attorney you want helping with critical analyses and decisions in this time. 

Hayley was a middle school English teacher before she went to law school. She is passionate about education and policy and her sincere interest, expertise, and passion make her an excellent Associate General Counsel for the Oklahoma City Public Schools. 

“As a classroom teacher, I personally felt the trickle-down effects of education policymaking in my classroom every day and decided that I wanted to be a part of those conversations at a higher level, as I knew many lawmakers didn’t have much experience with education outside of their own classroom experience as a child.”

Like everyone else, Hayley’s year has presented her with many more challenges than anyone could have foreseen. She has been gracious enough to share a little about what it is like in her part of the trenches.  

How Hayley’s Life Has Changed

After Hayley graduated from law school, she spent a few years working as a lobbyist for a group working to shape education policy and reform. About a year and a half ago she moved to an in-house position with OKCPS. 

“I began working for OKCPS about a year and a half ago after deciding I’d like to get some legal experience working directly for a school district rather than as a dreaded lobbyist. Now I get to be a dreaded lawyer serving the approximately 45,000 students and 5,000 employees comprising Oklahoma City Public Schools!”

Hayley’s days before the COVID-19 outbreak had varied schedules depending upon the day and the season of the year - for instance, summer would have fewer meetings with educators than the school year.  Like many people, she and her colleagues would work together in office-centric and meeting-centric environments, often working collaboratively and face-to-face.

“I attended several meetings per week with various school staff, covering topics such as charter school contracts, employment law issues, pending legislation affecting our schools, property law issues, advising our school board, or a host of other issues that popped up on a daily basis.”

Now that Hayley and her colleagues are working from home, since OKCPS has moved to online learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, her days look much different - and so do her coworkers. 

“Now I work from home and my lone coworker is much furrier and constantly barks at the garbage truck. I’m discovering which of my meetings could actually have been an email, as the ol’ adage goes.”

For Hayley and many of her colleagues in education administration, the challenges of transitioning to remote work are not the only added difficulties in their jobs. Any broad policy decision requires countless tasks and adjustments to implement, and the cancellation of the in-person school year is no different. Hayley and her colleagues are working hard on the manifold tasks necessary to keep the students learning as much as possible, and to protect the school district from more loss than necessary. These necessary tasks take an emotional toll.

“I’m spending a lot of time lately on the unpleasant task of cancelling our end-of-the-year event contracts such as prom venues, senior trips, graduation venues, etc. It makes me sad for these students who have worked so hard all year not to be able to celebrate these milestones with their classmates.” 

Like a lot of people right now, Hayley does not have much time to process the grief of an end-of-schoolyear loss. She and her colleagues also have the herculanean responsibility of interpreting new federal, state, and municipal rules and legislation and determining how they apply and how best to move forward.

“I’ve also spent a lot of time -- more time than I care to admit -- tracking and reading new legislation enacted by Congress and by the state legislature in response to the pandemic, along with local ordinances and proclamations enacted by OKC. These laws contain provisions that affect how schools operate, such as granting flexibility waivers for certain educational and financial requirements typically placed on schools that have been loosened or changed due to the switch to distance learning. It’s not an ideal situation for anyone, and we’re all learning as we go.”

How We Can Help Hayley

Hayley says she is fortunate to be able to stay home, and she and her husband are being vigilant about safety and responsible social distancing. So instead of our usual section where we share what we can do to help the featured person, Hayley wants to dedicate this section to drawing attention to an under-reported situation affecting the students she cares so much about.

“Even though we made the switch this week to distance learning for our students, we have dedicated school nutrition services staff working long hours on their feet every day at about 40 OKCPS school sites to ensure that our students are able to pick up breakfast and lunch from their school sites. Our staff has served over 200,000 thousand meals to students over the past two weeks, coming into contact with hundreds of people to do so. While the CDC and many governmental entities are encouraging people to stay home, that’s simply not practicable for everyone. So for those who do have to get out and about, whether for work or for basic living essentials, please take all recommended precautions -- wear masks (but don’t consider them a substitute for social distancing 6 feet when possible), wash your hands, don’t go out if you are sick, etc.”

What Hayley Wants You To Know About Educators

As an expert educator and also someone with first hand experience with all of the things schools and educators are dealing with right now, Hayley hopes we all remember not to take the miracles they are working for granted. 

”I hope that people come away from this experience with a new appreciation for educators. It’s not an easy job during the best of times, and many are being stretched in new and unfathomable ways. With almost no notice, they were asked to redesign what school looks like. They miss their students and their classrooms, and they know that distance learning is not the most effective learning method for most students. But guess what -- kids are being fed, students are learning, and needs are still being met, even in the midst of a global crisis. Teachers are some of the smartest and most dedicated people on earth, and they can do amazing things when given the resources and support they need.”

What Hayley Wants You To Know About Caring For Yourself

“For me, the most important thing right now is to try and extend grace to others and have grace for myself. For most of us, this is our first global pandemic, and it’s rough. Schools and businesses are being asked to come up with an entirely new way of delivering services, and being asked to do it with about a week or two of notice -- and from a distance when possible. It’s not ideal, and it certainly won’t be perfect. But let's try to assume the best intentions of our neighbors and remember that we’re all struggling in our own different ways. Be kind to yourself and to others. And try to take a few moments every day to practice gratitude -- there’s always something to be grateful for, even if it’s only for the opportunity to grow and learn from hard times. I hope we’ll come out of this more resilient and more grateful.”

We thank Hayley for being willing to share her experience with us. She’s a delight and I hope we all appreciate the hard work that she and her colleagues are doing behind the scenes to support students and educators. 

If you or someone you know would make a great feature, please email [email protected]. We will be featuring members of the Oklahoma City community daily for as long as we can.  Take care of each other, wash your hands, and shop local.