When will this pandemic end? It’s the question on everyone’s mind as a new year begins with another Covid surge forcing educators and policymakers to scramble.

But what if it doesn’t end? Many experts predict the virus will circulate in some form for the foreseeable future. Whether it’s a pandemic or climate change, the future of education looks like disruption.

How, then, do schools plan for that grim future?

In North Carolina, Andrew Smith, the chief administrative and strategic planning officer for the Rowan-Salisbury School District, has been thinking about this question for a while. His job title may exist in many districts, but not many school officials with that title spend their days as he does: focused on how to help his district innovate and prepare for a multitude of unknowns, including disaster.

“[This] may be bold and somewhat controversial, so I’m just going to say it — just acknowledge Covid as a constant,” Smith said. “And that perhaps it’s not going to go away.”

His job is to be the person “who kind of gets innovation, and disruption.”

“Having someone solely devoted to that space is important,” he said. “Who on your team is waking up thinking about the future of education every day and how we get there?”

Smith said that once school leaders can accept that the virus is going to be a constant, they can then prepare for continued disruptions. “That’s typically when the human mind takes over. Constraints … it’s when humans then start to solve,” Smith said. “Acknowledge it and start to solve for it, as if you’ll have to solve for it forever.”

Read the full article about future of education by Javeria Salman at The Hechinger Report.