MESSAGE from the SUPERINTENDENT

The country is living in unparalleled times. In the midst of it, all our schools have had to make changes on the fly from anywhere on how they will temporarily educate our children, to figure out how to provide food to children knowing that families are already struggling, with some not able to afford the extra expense.

Like others, L-K Superintendent Kerry Winters and the faculty have had to do the impossible with virtually no warning. Only time will answer the questions that lay ahead about ways next, but Winters is proud of the work her teachers and other members of the L-K school district has done. Three to four weeks into this “we are still working daily sending out over 300 meals a day for our students. Seems like there are additions and changes daily so that has definitely been a challenge. We are also preparing instructional packets for all 680 students individually. I am proud of the way our staff is working at making it work.”

Winters believes the students doing ok so far with the temporary homeschool solution. “I have not heard too many complaints. Teachers are calling their students weekly to check on them and make sure they are not having trouble with their work. Our biggest challenges have been making finding the right numbers for our kids. It’s very important to update student numbers as they change!! Trying to reach all of our students - there is still a handful that we have not been able to reach.”

Right now “each grade level is sending an “instructional packet” home for grades PK-5. High School students receive work for each of their courses. According to TEA, the student must meet all of the course criteria in order to get credit for the class. The teachers come in weekly in rotations to get their assignment packets out. Now that the governor has closed school for the remainder of the year, I expect that more teachers will start working in their rooms to close the school year and get ready for next year. We have about 25 staff still volunteering to ride school buses to help deliver meals and assignments. The whole process wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for them. I›m very grateful!!!” says Kerry.

Questions remain on how this season will affect the future learning of the students. “All educators are concerned about how far we will be behind coming into the next school year. We worked really hard to prepare for our state assessments this year and are a little disappointed to not get to take them. I KNOW we were going to show growth from last year!!! I think these months off will affect districts for the next several years. The only comfort is that all schools are in the same boat! That’s why it is so important that students are doing the work that teachers are sending home each week to keep their academics from falling too far behind,” says Winters.

Even though school was canceled this for the rest of the year statewide there is still a lot in the air. “We have not made this decision yet. We want to wait and see what the governor does over the next couple of weeks. Several area superintendents are discussing what these things will look like, but we WILL plan to do something special for this group of seniors.”

Even though this has been heartbreaking on so many different levels, all has not been lost through the process says Winters, “I think the best thing coming out of this is the amount of family time people are getting to spend at home. Our teachers and many students are really wishing we could go back to school to finish up the year,” though says Winters.

Another definite highlight through this has been meal delivery to the students says Winters, “The lunch deliveries are going great. We are feeding over 300 of our students!!”

“The challenge is when they go to a different house or aren’t home when the bus comes by. Some students are not in the same place daily and that makes it hard to reach them. The assignments have been a challenge, but the majority of our kids are getting their work and turning it in! We collect it weekly and let it sit for 72 hours before having any staff handle it for security purposes.”

“We have recently been able to provide work to be downloaded on our school website at www.lkcisd.net.”

“We also have an email helpline that we are asking parents and students to access if they have questions or problems with the work or meals and it is LKHelpline@lkcisd.net.”

“We do not have staff working full time in any office so phones may not be answered.”

To the community Winters would like the people of Linden and Kildare to know that “even though we are not in school, we are still moving forward as a district.

There are plans in the works to do some significant renovations at the campuses. We are also in the process of doing an efficiency study that will look at LED lighting, HVAC controls, and electrical upgrades.

We are missing our students and ready to get things back to normal.