The COVID impact spotlight has rested — rightfully — on the thousands of dedicated men and women in the state’s medical system who have remained on the front lines of the pandemic for nearly two years.

Their commitment has been a mostly silent one. They’ve gone to work, completed their work and grappled with the impact of watching people become very sick or die from the COVID-19 virus.

Their courage in the face of unprecedented upheaval should not be forgotten, but there is another group — teachers and educators across the region — who have, in some ways, escaped notice of the challenges they’ve faced and overcome since the pandemic kicked off.

Our teachers, coaches and administrators have been in the spotlight as well, but usually for a very different reason. At specific times during the pandemic, the people we trust to educate our youths somehow ended up in the middle of a political debate regarding masks and the very severity of COVID-19 itself. For reasons that remain mysterious, teachers, coaches and administrators were tossed into the maelstrom of debate about COVID-19, often becoming the targets for decisions made at the state level they had no control over.

Our educators — through no fault of their own — also were forced to completely adjust the way they teach when schools were closed across the state because of COVID-19.

These men and women at local and regional schools faced an array of serious — and often disappointing — challenges with little room to maneuver.

The truth is teachers and administrators should never have become focal points of local angst about vaccines or whether COVID-19 is serious or even real.

Their job was a straightforward one — teach our youths to the best of their ability.

When the COVID-19 mandates were handed down by Gov. Kate Brown, an entire way of teaching — etched into our collective consciousness for decades — evaporated overnight. That created huge challenges for teachers and administrators.

Our educators — just like our medical professionals — were not and are not searching for praise. They just want to do their jobs. Yet, it is fitting and right to point out their contributions and sacrifices during the past 18 or so months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We must not forget that our educators are part of our communities and deserve support during these challenging times.