New York Times Has A Podcast About Odessa High

I had no clue! The New York Times did a podcast about Odessa High during the pandemic. In a four part audio documentary  the New York Times followed teachers and students returning to school during a pandemic.

No one from the NY Times actually came to Odessa, but they did set up FaceTime Tours, Google Hangouts, audio diaries and phone calls. It's title caption is

A struggling school system. An oil bust. A marching band determined to keep playing through a pandemic. This is the story of one Texas high school in crisis — and trying to reopen its doors.

According to the NY Times here is how the parts break down:

Welcome to Odessa, Texas, home to one of the most productive oil fields in the world. It’s a boom-or-bust town, and, right now, the town is only just beginning to recover from a bust.

A series of bankruptcies in the oil industry and low gasoline prices have left the community, and its students, struggling. With limited resources, officials in Odessa’s school district have fought to keep disadvantaged students from falling further behind. But when Covid-19 shuttered school doors in the spring, those vulnerabilities were laid bare.

In Part 1, we introduce you to a teacher struggling to provide instruction both in person and online, a superintendent trying to keep the district safe and a student trying to finish her senior year on her phone — while simultaneously working.

This will be an interesting listen. I know they followed and talked to people here in Odessa but it will be interesting to see how a New Yorker interprets it. If you take a listen let me know what you think.