Area superintendents not surprised by rest-of-year closure

Area superintendents aren’t surprised by Gov. Mike Parson’s Thursday afternoon announcement to keep schools closed for the rest of the school year.

The order does not impact programs already in place to provide meals for students and child care options are still available as long as they meet the requirements of Parson’s stay-at-home order.

Twin Rivers R-X Superintendent Jeremy Siebert said the state’s decision is “a little refreshing.” He said it will save area superintendents time because it means they don’t have to get together and make it the way they did for the initial closure and the extension.

Southeast Missouri superintendents have met to discuss both of those decisions over the course of the last six weeks and were planning to discuss it again before the current extension — to May 1 for most districts — came.

Dr. Scott Dill, Poplar Bluff R-I superintendent, said with the way things have gone for the past few weeks, closing for the rest of the school year was likely going to be made whether statewide or locally.

“While I am obviously disappointed that we won’t get the opportunity to close out our school year, to have closure on relationships with our kids, I do agree with the governor that this is the best decision for our state and our community of Poplar Bluff,” he said.

Neelyville R-IV Superintendent Debra Parish agreed that the decision wasn’t a surprise. She expressed concern about the length of time students will now be out of school, but pointed out that the district has sent out Alternative Methods of Instruction packets to students.

“We certainly encourage parents to seek out any free programs, or any programs that they can have access to through this and to help their students to learn,” she said.

All three districts are providing some form of alternative education opportunities for students during this break. These are not mandatory and won’t count as a grade, but are a chance for students to work on what they would be learning in school.

These opportunities, along with meal programs, are allowed to continue under the governor’s new decision. All three superintendents have said they plan to offer meals as long as it is safe to do so.

Under the order, the school year will end at the time it was originally scheduled to before the break for each district. However, questions still remain about what will happen with summer school, how things will look at the start of fall and impact on graduating seniors. Many of these questions don’t have answers right now.

Parish said the district is planning an alternative graduation for students on May 9, when it was originally planned to be, that will allow families to engage with some form of presentation at home.

Siebert said graduation likely won’t happen on May 3, when it was originally planned. He said he’s sure the district will have something at some point, but conversations are ongoing about what that looks like.

Meanwhile, Dill said he’s determined to have something for the graduating seniors when its safe to do so. The topic of graduation will come up at next week’s school board meeting, he said.

“I would much rather wait and commit to our kids that we do a regular graduation,” he said. “We recognize that this is a once in a lifetime event for our kids and their families. I’m going to steal a phrase I saw from a school out in Western Missouri: the hassle is worth the tassel … I think we will reach the point where we can offer our kids a traditional graduate and I will not give up hope of that until it is pried from my hands.”

Summer school is another aspect of education that doesn’t have an answer right now, but Dill said he’ll do everything possible to offer it.

“I hope that we get to go back for our regular summer school term in June, but if we don’t get to go back in June then I’ll wait until July,” he said. “If we don’t get to go back in July then I’ll have it in August. One way or another, we have an obligation to our kids and to our community, to try and make up for the time and the learning that we’ve lost.”