Lane’s strategy: Tapping into his alumni network and recruiting students to become teachers and other staff while they’re still enrolled at Haines City High School in Central Florida.

An idea he came up with four years ago as teaching vacancies became difficult to fill, Lane has avoided staffing shortages — part of a new normal unfolding across the country as schools face bus delays, canceled classes, repeat meals, and student mental health.

“The mentality of most principals is to graduate them, prepare them for the real world and send them off,” Lane told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ. “I started thinking, why am I sending them off when I’ve got all these vacancies? Let me start inviting them back and work with them so they can make a great career right here with me.”

Today, 35 of the school’s 147 teachers are Haines City High School alumni, with graduates dating back to June 2018.

In addition, eight alums are part-time substitutes, three are classroom aides and three are secretaries.

“The [alumni] are super excited because they truly respected and liked their teachers,” Lane said. “Now they’re hand-in-hand, side-by-side working with the people they grew up respecting in their own classroom.”

To get students interested in returning to Haines as teachers and other staff, Lane works to create “unforgettable moments” while they are enrolled.  

“You’ve got to make sure your current students love the school,” Haines said. “You have to make sure there’s a focus on building relationships between the teachers and the students.”

For Lane, recruitment starts with on-the-job training by placing juniors and seniors in student aid positions working directly with teachers, custodians or secretaries.

As they graduate, Lane continues on-the-job training by encouraging them to take on substitute roles as they pursue their college degree.

“When they’re in college, I work with them to take their classes either on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and substitute for me Tuesday, Thursday or vice versa,” Lane said.

After college, Lane said they’re on the top of his list to hire for full-time positions.

“I have even tried to put our alumni either next to the same planning room as their favorite teacher or even in the same hallway where they have their favorite teacher from their high school days as their mentor,” Lane said. “It’s just an amazing process to see.”

Nia Getfield, who graduated from Haines City High School in 2018, went from being a part-time substitute to a provisional teacher this school year.

“It’s just that familiarity and that security they were offering when I first came out of college that really brought me back,” Getfield told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ.

Getfield said Lane became principal when she was a sophomore, improving students’ perception of coming to school.

“As a student, I was always able to say that Mr. Lane’s cool, he knows what he’s doing and I can trust him,” Getfield said. “As his employee now, I can still say the same thing.”

Adrianna Ramos, who graduated from Haines City High School in 2014 and is now a classroom aide this school year, agreed. 

“Getting to work with teachers that inspired me back in the day feels so good,” Ramos said. “And I tell them, yeah I’m back because you guys made an impact on me.”

Sonia Gutierrez, who graduated from Haines City High School in 2005, has been a front office secretary for over 6 years. 

This school year, Gutierrez was promoted as the school’s financial secretary and athletic business manager.

“We’re like a family here,” Gutierrez said. “Mr. Lane makes it fun here as an employee and it’s just been a great experience to be back.”

Lane said Gutierrez is one of three front office secretaries who are alumni.

“Do you know the sense of pride they deliver on the phone and when visitors walk through to say they were alumni and now work the front office to greet people? It’s amazing,” Lane said.

Because of its success, Lane said he will continue recruiting students to fill future vacancies.

“I always tell my students if you want to go off and do something else, I’ll prepare you for it,” said Lane. “But if you’re not sure, you got a spot right here with me.”

It’s a major departure from the agency’s prior stance, which held that schools should enforce universal masking regardless of virus levels.

“Since July 2021, CDC recommended universal masking in schools no matter what level of impact COVID-19 was having on the community. With this update, CDC will now only recommend universal school masking in communities at the high level,” said CDC epidemiologist Greta Massetti in a media call.

The change comes as part of a wider reconfiguration in COVID policy now recommended by the CDC, easing masking guidelines for most Americans. Rather than using community case rates as the sole metric to determine risk levels, the agency will now use a new formula that also takes COVID hospitalizations and hospital capacity into account. 

Only in counties where COVID risk is high does the agency now recommend universal masking indoors, though individuals may continue to choose to wear face coverings at lower levels depending on their own personal risk and comfort, officials said. 

While only about of U.S. counties were considered low or moderate risk under the old framework, nearly 60 percent now fall into that categorization, accounting for about 70 percent of Americans. Individuals may check the updated risk level for their county on the CDC’s .

The change in school masking guidance comes after weeks of movement at the state and local level to scrap face-covering policies. In early February, several states including New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts announced the end of their school mask mandates, and on Tuesday, the Maryland State Board of Education voted to , though the change needs legislative approval before it will go into effect. ​​Of the 500 largest U.S. school districts, currently require students to wear masks, down from 60 percent at the beginning of February, according to data collected by Burbio, which has tracked school policy through the pandemic.

States such as California and New York have yet to announce an end to their school masking rules. But in a small step toward loosening restrictions, New York City students will on school grounds starting Monday, officials announced Friday morning. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will announce an end date for school masking in his state Monday.

The CDC’s move to ease masking guidance represents a broader effort to help Americans return to a “new normal,” even as the virus continues to circulate.

Over 200 million Americans have received their primary vaccine series, pointed out CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, half of whom have been boosted. Many more have a level of immunity due to prior infection.

“With widespread population immunity, the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower,” said Walensky. “Now as the virus continues to circulate in our community, we must focus our metrics beyond just cases in the community and direct our efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe ailments and preventing COVID-19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our health care system.”

President Biden and the CDC have previously speculated the end of the pandemic, even giving the summer of 2021 the hopeful title “summer of freedom,” before the Delta surge quickly proved that COVID would continue to disrupt daily life.

Perhaps with awareness of that history, Massetti emphasized that schools — and the wider community, too — should adjust virus mitigation rules based on changing conditions.

“Public health prevention strategies can be dialed up when our communities are experiencing more severe disease and dialed down when things are more stable.”

Walensky added, “We need to be able to dial them up again should we have a new variant or a new surge.”

Still, some have critiqued the choice to ease masking guidelines as motivated by politics and pandemic weariness. As the CDC prepared to announce updated recommendations, several disability advocates the plan on Twitter.

The new metrics do not take community or school vaccination rates into account, though officials emphasized that vaccination greatly decreases the likelihood of severe illness and hospitalization and thus is indirectly reflected in the new thresholds.

Nationwide, a quarter of children aged 5 to 11 and 57 percent of youth aged 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the . Shots for children under 5 will not be available for over a month.