School Matters October 18, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

We will attempt to keep you informed of important events and initiatives within the district by these weekly updates. Please take an opportunity to review the following information and contact us if you have any questions. Thanks for all you do! Jeff

1. We have 10 bank days in the school calendar for inclement weather and other school emergencies. We will use 2 of these bank days to give staff and students an extra break during Thanksgiving. We were already closed on November 24–26. The Board of Education voted to give everyone 2 extra days off during that week. This means that schools will be closed November 22–26. It is our hope that staff and students can use this time to recharge and rest.

We understand closing of schools will be a great opportunity for some families to visit distance relatives and take a week-long vacation. We also understand that these 2 extra days will create some challenges for parents who are working. We are always concerned about our working parents, and we will provide some type of childcare for parents who need children to attend school on that Monday and Tuesday. We will not provide childcare the remainder of the week because we were already scheduled to be out on those days. We will not provide bus transportation on Monday and Tuesday. Schools will be closed so no student would be counted absent. Individual schools will send out a notification to identify students who need daycare on November 22 and 23.

2. Our COVID numbers continue to remain low. We anticipated we would see a slight increase in the number of cases after fall break, and this is the case. On Monday of this week, we only had 4 cases, but the numbers slowly began to rise throughout the week. We had 20 active cases toward the end of the week. Of those 20 cases, 17 were students and 3 were staff.

3. We will soon begin the process of creating the school calendar for next year. Please email Mrs. Webb if you have thoughts or suggestions about the 2021-2022 school calendar. We will forward those comments to the calendar committee and the School Board.

4. At our last meeting, the Board decided to hire Dr. Wayne Qualls to help them lead the superintendent search. Dr. Qualls is a retired superintendent and has helped many school districts find quality candidates. I will remain on the job through June 30 and will ensure there is a smooth transition. I will do everything in my power to help the next superintendent be successful and be ready on July 1. At some point, the school board will solicit feedback from the community and staff on what they would like to see in the next superintendent. We will make sure the community is aware of this opportunity when it is time.

5. We are moving forward on the new Lincoln Elementary School project. We are currently involved in the preliminary design phase. This design work will continue through the winter, and we hope to be finished by early spring. It is important to have this design work finished so that we can begin construction in late spring and take advantage of the summer/fall construction window. The school board approved the purchase of a 33-acre site on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. This site has traditionally been identified as the Gateway Service Park. The property can be seen if you turn from Highway 160 on to MLK Boulevard. It will be the large flat area on the right where the heavy power lines come across the front of the property. The school would be situated near the back of that property. It is important to note that we will not be sending buses onto Highway 160. All buses will turn back toward town. We anticipate the actual construction phase to begin in April/May 2022 and would be completed July 2024. The estimated cost is $27 million. We are using $5 million of the Federal money (ESSER funding) for the project and asking the County Commission for the other $22 million.

6. Several have asked about the number of bank days that we have this year. We only have 10 banked days this year because we added the early release days to the calendar this year. The early dismissals reduced the amount of instructional time which reduces the amount of bank time that we accumulate. Bottom line – we only have 10 banked days this year.

7. We still get this question. We will not be able to send out the bonus checks until the ESSER application is approved. We think the applications should be approved soon but it has been a long process. It is important to note that we submitted the grant in July. We will let you know as soon as we receive notification the application has been approved.

8. We are asking the community to express their appreciation for our teachers and staff over the next couple months through a project called, Celebrate Education. We want to have a day each month in which we do a little something extra for our schools to demonstrate our appreciation. It is our hope that local churches, civic organizations, community members, parent/teacher organizations, etc. will adopt a school and do a little something special on the first Monday of each month. These first Monday’s celebrations will not be anything major but just a little something to let our teachers/staff know how much they are appreciated. We will start the Celebrate Education on the first Monday in December which is December 6.