by Garrick Moritz, Gazette
The Covid-19 disease caused by the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of people across the world. In Garretson, it’s no different. The Garretson school board hosted an emergency meeting last week, because at the time, the SD Governor Kristi Noem had suspended school statewide for a week. As of Governor Noem’s press briefing on March 24, schools will be closed until May 1st.
Once the board convened, Superintendent Guy Johnson, Elementary Principal Teresa Hulscher, Middle School/High School Principal Chris Long, and Technology Coordinator Matt Schrank briefed the board on what they were doing in the face of this crisis.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Supt. Johnson. “Tonight, we’re going to address answers to many questions, but for many of these questions we have no answers. Throughout this crisis our goals are to keep our students and staff as safe as possible and to do our best to keep our students education moving forward. No matter what happens we’re going to stay calm, stay professional, and stay stable. With this virus there are a lot of things that are out of our control, but for the things we can control, we’ll will meet them with professionalism and optimism. This is what our staff as a whole has decided, and I could not be prouder of them all.”
The first item of note Supt. Johnson talked about was approval to provide lunches to Garretson Students. At the time, he had only gotten approval for a sack lunch program, but as of Monday, March 23, the school was approved to provide a breakfast as well. It’s a federal reimbursement program where the school can provide sack breakfasts and lunches to Garretson students.
These meals are for Garretson students only. A student can come to the school in the morning and collect both sack meals, and their name will simply be checked off a list.
Supt. Johnson also said that they will also be working on setting up distribution points to bring those food options to students all around the district, for example in Sherman, and perhaps to a few distribution points to make it easier for rural students to take advantage of this food program. They had already started the sack lunch program that very day and he hoped to have the breakfast program in operation by next week. Per his phone call with the Gazette this past Monday, it was.
Delivery options are still pending, so stay tuned for school announcements in this newspaper or on the Gazette website as to where delivery sites will be located.
“We want to help as many of our students and their families as we can during this crisis,” he said. “This service is for our students only, because of the nature of the program, but we would love to help as many of them as possible.”
Supt. Johnson reported that all teachers are reporting as normal. Education Assistants and other hourly positions were able to come to work last week and assist the janitorial staff in cleaning and sanitizing the entire school building. Administrative Assistants are also helping with janitorial duties in addition to manning the phones to talk with local families.
Continued on Part Two- Free Level account or higher required to view
