Students from Clinton City Schools are still operating from home and CCS is still providing Grab and Go meals. It seems as the weeks continue, fewer people are stopping by to pick up their meals.
“Our Grab and Go meal count was much lower today than it has been over the last two weeks,” Superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson stated in a message on Facebook.
Johnson noted that even though Governor Roy Cooper has issued a Stay-At-Home order for North Carolina, that doesn’t stop their meal distribution.
“Travel to school and community sites to retrieve food, student work packets and/or to use our filtered Internet for remote learning are allowable provisions under this order,” Johnson explained. “We have faculty and staff working to make these meals available for our students and community, and we hope you will continue to take advantage of this opportunity.”
CCS first began distributing Grab and Go meals on March 16, the first day schools were closed. The schools instructed parents to travel through the morning car rider lines at any of the schools. But the parents must go to the school their child goes to in order to get an information packet filled with instructional materials for students who do not have a way to access their materials online.
The teachers provide the packets in the same Grab and Go meal lines at L.C. Kerr, Butler Avenue and Sunset Avenue.
The last distribution day was Thursday and parents picked up four days worth of supplies.
The school system began a Chromebook distribution on Wednesday, March 18, at the Auxiliary Services warehouse at Clinton High School. They began this distribution so that students could “access learning materials and communicate with their teachers via Google Education tools,” according to the CCS Facebook page.
Parents can drive up to the auxiliary building and staff members will have them sign a release form before providing them with a Chromebook for their child. The adult must be over 18 years of age and they will take full responsibility for any charges should the device be lost or damaged.
According to John Lowe, executive director of Technology and Auxiliary Services for CCS, as of April 1, CCS has distributed 956 Chromebooks to students from third to 12th grade.
WiFi/Internet zones continue to be available in school parking lots from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. There are eight locations for students to access including the 606 College St. parking, the L.C. Kerr School’s front parking lot, the Butler Avenue School’s bus and teacher parking lots, the Sunset Avenue School’s Kerr Street parking, the Sampson Middle School’s front and rear parking lots and the Clinton High School’s student parking lot.
The school system has purchased a total of 72 KaJeet hotspots, a small device that connects to Verizon mobile service and offers filtered Internet access. The KaJeet hotspots arrived on April 1. The technology department needs to prep the devices and ready them for distribution. CCS will send out a personal invitation to the students who need the devices. The invitation will provide details on when and how to pick-up the hotspots.
Johnson noted that Friday, April 3, is designated as an annual leave day or Spring Break day three. The next annual leave day will be next Friday on April 10. March 24 and 26 were the first two days designated as Spring Break.
Sheila Peterson, executive director of Human Resources, noted that CCS has given out 48,836 meals to the community as of March 30.
On March 27, Butler Avenue prepared 250 bagged meals for their students. Meals went home in grocery bags donated by Walmart.
Jodi Hall, the school’s librarian, stated that the school was providing library books along with their information packets. The books were sent home with parents for the students to keep as their own, so essentially they got a free book.
“They were just so excited,” Hall stated. “We’re working every couple of weeks to give them a book.”
Books weren’t the only things Butler Avenue faculty and staff sent home with parents. Everyone banded together to send a note to each student that could be inspirational or motivational. Some notes told students to keep reading or to keep moving forward.
Schools will remain open for staff with in-session remote learning days. The superintendent provided more information on plans for the “future” along with a breakdown of nutrition, instruction, calendar, etc. details from March 16 until April 1 during a regular school board meeting. Those announcements are upcoming.
