District discusses their plans during the COVID19 Pandemic

By ARIANA R. CHERRY
Staff Writer

Practicing their social distancing by sitting six feet away from each other, the ALAH School Board met Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm with the principals being absent.

Before discussing the agenda, Darren Powell of Lovington who is on the Lovington Board of Trustees and serves with the Lovington ambulance, approached board members about possibly making the old football field at the Lovington Grade School a designated landing zone for a med-vac (check spelling). Currently, the ambulance has landing zones in Arthur and Sullivan. Superintendent, Shannon Cheek, suggested that they come up with some type of agreement which they could present to their lawyers before moving forward. Darren would return in April with an agreement that the board could look at.

Board members also discussed their contract with Miller Bus Service. Shannon informed the board that we were up for renewal and noted that he was happy with their services so far. No action was taken at that time.

With the COVID19 pandemic on so many minds within our community, Shannon discussed what the plans are for the school district.

“I predict it will get more complicated. That there is more layers to it. It is tough, but we are all in this together,” stated Superintendent Shannon Cheek.

“We got together this past Sunday and had some meetings and did a lot of work in a short amount of time- about four to five hours We discussed about feeding our kids, their education and how long this could last, etc. Everyone also put together a plan to feed our students and put together a tentative plan for our staff for engaging activities for them as well. We still need to have a discussion about E-Learning activities for our students to do. There is a lot of layers to that. One big question that comes is not just the devices, but the Wi-Fi for families,” he added.

Shannon went on to explain that the longer this pandemic lasts, more questions will come up and the more the district will be challenged. “If we are out through the end of the school year, we will continue our plans,” he said. Shannon also informed the board that the state said they would not cut funding.

“It is great that we released our new app just in time to handle this situation. We all can stay connected through it,” mentioned board member, Monica Green.

“We are going to look at any and all options so that our kids can have their experiences. We don’t want to cancel prom or the senior trip- even if we had to have something in July,” Shannon quoted.

Presently, the students were scheduled to come back starting March 31 after spring break, but with Governor Pritzker enforcing a “Shelter in Place” through end of day, April 7, some things may be changing, but the district is ready for it.

“Our plan is for students to do two to three activities a week in reading math and writing. We will plan this for four to five weeks, if it goes into April. This plan will be in place when the students come to pick up their food,” explained Shannon.

He also explained how the procedure would go for food pick-up. The district has elected to do one day pick-up for the rest of the week. Shannon informed that by doing this, there would be less prep in the end, as there won’t be a need for daily prepping. “It worked pretty well the first day that we did it,” he commented. A total of 256 families were served.

Moving forward, forms were sent out to families to sign up for meals ahead of time, and they plan on doing it the same again. If a family did not get a form turned in though, they will not be turned away.

“The most frustrating part for me and our parents in all this is the unknown,” quoted Shanon.

Personnel Report
March 18, 2020

Certified:

Accept Resignation of Justin Jerkovitz as 5th grade LGS teacher

Accept Resignation of Jordan Lucas as JH Math teacher at LGS

Accept Resignation of Jazmine Arnett as the JH Cheerleading Coach

Accept Resignation of Heather Piper as HS Special Education Teacher

Accept Resignation of Emily Lumsden as Elementary teacher at AGS

Accept Resignation of Andrea Dunlap as Social Worker at LGS

Recommend for hire – Judi Wood, Elementary Special Education LGS

Recommend for hire – Melissa Ashmore Social Worker at LGS

Non-Certified:

Accept Resignation of Carla Poorman as Library Aide at AGS

Extra-Curricular:

Recommend for hire – Alicia Henning Color Guard Coach

Recommend Ethan Coller as volunteer baseball coach