BOE will meet to discuss plans in wake of pandemic
Well, if you have to have the shadow of a pandemic hanging over your school district …
Monday was the first day in Monongalia County Schools that students, teachers and staffers hunkered down away from their classrooms — while the coronavirus continues to cast big shadows in surrounding states.
And, relatively speaking, it wasn’t bad.
Mon Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. summed it up with a classroom caveat.
“I don’t want to say it was a ‘good’ day because we didn’t have kids in school,” he asserted, “but it was a smooth day.”
That included the digital delivery of lesson plans via Chromebook laptop computers and the district’s “Arctic Academy” days.
The above system was originally put into place for the purpose of contending with inclement weather.
Now, Mon’s schools are contending with the coronavirus, and what Gov. Jim Justice said is “a monster, looming.”
Perhaps even more important than that Chromebook homework, students who rely upon their schools for breakfast and lunch also got fed.
A total of 400 “grab-and-go,” lunches were prepared for those students, Campbell said.
Mon’s school bus drivers will also deliver meals to select bus stops starting today, the superintendent said, and that’s on top of other meals provided twice a week by Pantry Plus More, a Westover outreach founded in 2016 by a then-Morgantown High student to combat food insecurity across the region.
Visit boe.mono.k12.wv.us and click on the “coronavirus” link for delivery times and locations.
As with Monday, today’s prepared lunches will also be available for pickup at schools across the county.
Students don’t need to go their respective schools for the meal, Campbell said.
“If you’re a Morgantown High student and it’s more convenient for you to go to Mountaineer Middle, for example, that’s not a problem,” the superintendent said.
“All the student’s information will be entered in right there,” he said.
The governor, meanwhile, said Monongalia’s schools, along with every other public school in the state, will remain shuttered at least through March 27.
That’s in an effort to tamp down exposure to the virus, when confirmed cases begin hitting here.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, that had yet to happen, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Eighty people had tested negative for the virus, the department said, with four cases pending.
Mon’s Board of Education is also meeting in special session at 6 p.m. today to discuss measures concerning the virus.
