Though the outbreak of COVID-19 and the closure of schools has prevented Renee Hartling from physically seeing her colleagues at Love Elementary School, the school’s principal has been able to virtually continue at least one well-known education ritual.

Staff meetings.

In those weekly sessions, Hartling said, planning has already begun in preparation for the beginning of a school year that should prove to be unlike any other — plans that she will have to watch come to fruition from a distance.

“Things are going to be very different and it’s a natural thing as a leader that you want to be the one who leads that,” said the building’s leader since January of 2000. “I feel really bad that right now, that’s not me.”

“You never would have imagined that this is how a career would end.”

Hartling is one of four building principals in the Jamestown Public Schools district who will retire by the end of this calendar year, joining colleagues Maria DeJoy, principal of Fletcher Elementary School, and Phil Cammarata, principal of Persell Middle School.

The fourth, Dan Bracey, will have the opportunity to see through the district’s plan for the next school year: his retirement as principal of Bush Elementary School is not effective until November.

“We’re going to make the changes we need to make and hopefully it’s going to be the best plan the district can come up with in these times,” he said, crediting Tina Sandstrom, the district’s chief director schools, for her guidance. “Compared to my peers, they’re going to miss that sense of closure. It’s going to be different and I do feel sorry for Maria, Phil and Renee that they’re not going to be able to hold on.”

“The one reason I’m anxious is that you can layout a good plan, but it takes a good leader to implement the plan and ensure that that plan will be implemented the way it’s designed to be implemented and that’s no easy task,” said DeJoy, a former global history teacher at Jamestown High School, who returned to the district in 2013 after serving 12 years as an administrator for the Buffalo Public School district.

“I just know it’s going to be a huge task for the new principal not only to learn about the culture of the school and staff and now they’ve been given an extra thing to worry about,” she said. “You don’t take ‘How to Come Back After A Pandemic’ in administrative courses.”

And while all four never could have envisioned how the school year would end upon filing for retirement in February, they have been proud of the lengths to which their individual staffs have adjusted during unprecedented times.

“When I asked them to be teaching every day, they were teaching every day,” said Cammarata, who noted, however, his staff did struggle with connecting to each student. “That was the hard part. The staff were willing and able and wanting to teach, but when you only have half of your students in a Zoom, it makes it very difficult.”

“Not only myself, but also the teachers went through a little bit of a grieving process because you’re not having that personal connection with our kids … and anybody who knows elementary students, they are so full of expression and wanting to hug,” said DeJoy.

“With all of that all of a sudden being taken away abruptly, it’s been a little bit hard,” she said. “But I must say, my staff has really risen to the occasion. And they didn’t want to just give them any tasks and materials, they put a lot of thought into what they were giving our kids to bring home.”

That adaptability has also impressed Hartling as well.

“They’ve definitely kept the kids engaged,” she said. “We’ve tried to stay connected in a lot of ways. Of course, we’ve used the technology and there are Zoom meetings every week. Those have been neat, too and in many cases, it’s not just the kids who are sitting there learning, but the parents who are right there with the kids. You don’t have that when you’re in school. It’s just neat that you’re connected in that way, too.”

And while changes seem to be on the horizon in the years to come, all four will retire having seen a range of changes impact the education field during their career.

Cammarata, for instance, said that when he first started at Persell 21 years ago as an assistant principal, 25 percent of students qualified for free and reduced lunch — as of this school year, that number is close to 70 percent.

“You can say a lot about how kids are impoverished or whatever, but when you have high expectations and when you have a staff that has high expectations, it really boils down to the face that we can do anything,” he added. “We can get these kids from high poverty homes to do great things and really be successful. It’s about our school and we’ve always been like a family.”

Hartling, too, said that poverty has never been a barrier to her staff.

“It’s really a community that I connect with,” she said. “We’ve always been in this education thing together because they want what’s best for their children and we want what’s best for their children. We have the same goal. If we can work together, it can only benefit the kids. That’s what the important piece is. I’ve had that connection and I think we, over the years, have developed that trust.”

“In our profession, we change lives,” said Cammarata. “That’s what made me wake up every morning at 5 a.m. and not be able to wait until I got to work. How many people can say that they change lives as a job? Firemen, policemen, they save lives. Medical personnel. We have that unique ability to change lives and I guess I would like to hope that somewhere along the way that I’ve possibly changed some lives for some students.”

And while the future ahead might be foggy, each are confident in the building their successor — who will be announced during Wednesday’s board of education meeting — will inherit.

“They are taking over a wonderful, wonderful building full of traditions, a staff that is constantly learning and evolving into better versions of themselves,” DeJoy said of Fletcher. “They’re also getting a staff that loves to create memorable experiences for students.”

“There is no utopian school,” Cammarata said. “(Persell) is a family and like a family, we have good days and we have bad days but we always come back and we support one and other. That person who will walk in, I hope they know that they’re going to be inheriting a family. I wish them all the best.”

“We have a lot of superstars (at Bush) that go above and beyond,” added Bracey. “And, they’re wonderful people, both staff and families and we all want the same result. Sometimes we have different paths we think are the most appropriate to get there, but they all want to get to the same place and they need to remember that those parents, no matter what the family life is, they love their kids, good or bad.”

“(Love) is a very special place,” said Hartling. “I have been blessed to work with the staff that I have. That staff will do anything it takes to help kids and I just want my successor to know that they’re getting a very, very special place. That’s just how I feel about it. I’ve always been impressed by the people I have worked with. I have been blessed. They will do whatever it takes to help any child with anything.”