Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series looking at individuals and families and how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

LA GRANDE — Parker and Jill McKinley know the shake-up caused by the COVID-19 pandemic all too well.

Both are teachers — Parker at La Grande Middle School and Jill at Baker Web Academy. They are raising four children and steering them through the pandemic — as well as themselves. Parker also is the co-owner of a La Grande business and the head coach of both the La Grande High School and La Grande American Legion baseball teams.

In a matter of weeks, the family — like most — went from running dozens of different directions on a daily basis to a much slower lifestyle. School was closed in March for about three weeks before it was moved online. Winter sports championships were cut short, and in early April the spring sports season was canceled altogether. Businesses were impacted in a variety of ways.

“It’s been really challenging, extremely challenging for everybody,” Parker McKinley said. “I look at it through so many different lenses, as far as an educator trying to help a group of kids in the classroom, trying to teach to the best that I could and (then to) have that be shaken up. Also having my own four kids and helping them navigate through those changes.”

But even in the midst of the challenge, both saw positives. Life grinding to a screeching halt brought more time together as a family. Running kids from one activity to the next or coaching sports over a five- to six-month period in the spring and summer gave way to a completely different routine.

“It was actually really great to have so much more time together, and family dinner in the spring is a rarity,” Jill McKinley said. “(Typically) I throw something at the kids in between games or we go through a drive through. We had almost every family dinner around the table.”

Educational impact

In mid-March schools in Oregon were closed at part of the initial steps taken to counteract the pandemic, and in April classes reopened in an online format.

Parker is a multidisciplinary teacher at the sixth-grade level. One of the major challenges, he said, was connecting students with the material and supplies needed for online study, but he praised the efforts made by the school district.

“It was a major adjustment for kids and families, and as educators. I think our district really tackled the challenge and embraced it, all the way from administration down to the teachers, our cooks (and) custodians,” he said. “Our entire district staff really tried to make it the best we could for kids and their families.”

Although Jill already instructs in an online format at Baker Web, she also meets in person with students in an advisory role, and the pandemic has highly altered that aspect of her job.

She said her students’ lives were heavily impacted outside of school.

“Our students were a little bit lucky that their schooling wasn’t interrupted, per se, but their lives were interrupted. I have a student who does plays at Elgin Opera House,” she said, adding that the student has an interest in pursuing acting. “There isn’t a timeline when it can open back up.”

BWA won’t be conducting those in-person meetings all this school year, which Jill said will be a challenge.

“That’s kind of weighing on me,” she said.

Business

Parker McKinley co-owns We Paint La Grande, and while there was an impact with the business — he said things were put on hold during the first month of the pandemic — it wasn’t nearly as severe a hit as others in the region have taken.

“We’ve been able to keep our employees working and business moving forward,” he said. “We’ve had a few customers who were a little bit uneasy with the state of the pandemic, and we were more than happy to accommodate that. People have been good to talk about it. If they wanted us to put them on hold and wait, we’ve done that. We had another that wanted to communicate (by) phone. All of those are just a part of our community working together.”

Spring sports cancellation

There were high expectations for the La Grande High School baseball team, which Parker would have been coaching for his seventh season this spring, as the squad was loaded with seniors and athletes who had been part of the football and wrestling state championships earlier in the school year. He said he held out hope as long as possible that the season would happen, but as state mandates in April kept Oregon largely closed, the Oregon School Activities Association eventually was left with no choice but to cancel the spring season.

“I didn’t want that to be taken away from the kids. My biggest hope was for that big group of seniors, and certainly the high hope we had for success for the year,” he said. “It was going to be a lot of fun to be part of. Even more important, that group of kids committed four years to the program. You practice and play (as a) freshman, sophomore, junior and really all of it is for that year, the senior year.”

He said when he realized the season was gone, he was left speechless.

“When it finally did set in that it wasn’t going to happen, that we were going to lose (the season), it was really hard on me, and I didn’t know what to say,” he said. “I was trying to find something positive to say, that leadership quality I feel I have. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to help guide them.”

Jill McKinley is on the board for La Grande Little League, which during the spring also had to cancel.

“I knew when that decision came down, it felt like it was disappointment after disappointment,” she said. “Everyone had that experience.”

Home life

While there was more time at home together during the quarantine, there also was a unique aspect of both educators now teaching from home and simultaneously helping their own children — ages 14, 11, 8 and 6 — adapt. Two of their children had better success adjusting to the online study format, but the other two really missed the social interaction.

“Our second grader, Ryker, he did fine, but our youngest, she’s a personality,” Jill said. “She is as social as her dad. She really missed her kindergarten teacher. Those little people run on routine.”

Both also said that despite taking a positive outlook on life, they experienced personal challenges during the early stages. For Parker, it was the inability to have even a hint of an idea of what the day would bring.

“The constant changing, wondering, shutdowns, closures, it was really hard to navigate through. It was not something anybody had ever experienced,” he said.

Jill called the quarantine hard, and added that despite the benefits of extra family time, at some point you are bound to go a little stir-crazy.

“As much as I love our home, I don’t want to be here 24/7 through the whole school year,” she said.

Perspective

Even with the plethora of changes, cancellations and the unknown that still lies ahead, the McKinleys feel fortunate.

“Parker and I both have commented we’re super lucky,” she said. “We both have jobs, both have job security going into next year.”

Parker said faith was a key for the family as well.

“We did a lot of praying, a lot of trusting in what was going on and knowing we were trying to make decisions the right way and for the right reason,” he said. “I believe we are being looked out for. I believe that faith has played a major part in it too.”

They also commended each other for what they brought to the table while going through the last few months. Jill pointed to Parker not only helping set structure at home with the changes, but how he dealt with the challenges, especially with the loss of baseball.

“Parker handled not having a baseball season so well that I was thoroughly impressed with how positive he maintained,” she said.

Parker added the rest of the sixth-grade teaching staff and his coaching staff was a huge support, but said his wife was vital.

“She is by far a rock that I can lean on,” he said. “She understands everything that goes into what we have to do as far as coaching (and) teaching. She gets it and supports it 100%.”

“The constant changing, wondering, shutdowns, closures, it was really hard to navigate through. It was not something anybody had ever experienced.”

—Parker McKinley, La Grande educator, coach and business owner