Wednesday
8 April 2020
Hayes Center Patrons,
You undoubtedly know that a week ago Governor Ricketts closed all of the school buildings in the state. From the Governor’s website: “Under this new DHM [Directed Health Measure], schools statewide are directed to operate without students in their buildings through May 31, 2020. Extracurricular activities are also cancelled statewide. This restriction does not apply to school staff working in school buildings.”
The next morning, the NSAA [Nebraska School Activities Association] released the following statement: “All remaining NSAA activity practices and competitions, including district and state competitions, have been cancelled for this school year. These cancelations are part of a new Directed Health Measure issued by Governor Ricketts.”
With that news, I want to let you know that we will be continuing to do our best to educate our children the best we can under the circumstances. Our Elementary School students will continue to receive packets of school work and enrichment activities each week.
For our students in grades 7-12, we’ve done a lot of researching and thinking about ways to maintain attendance and to increase interest, enthusiasm, and accountability. We have been reaching our students by Zoom meetings on the internet. Beginning next Monday (April 13th), we will move to Monday through Thursday class meetings. On Monday and Wednesday, we will have the regular classes. On Tuesday and Thursday students will be able to choose among “Enrichment Activities” created by the teachers.
The Monday and Wednesday classes will be “graded” – pass/fail. The students must be in attendance for the full class time at least 2/3 of the time to “pass”. The teachers will also have the option of increasing the students’ second semester grades if they are present and actively participate in the class.
For the “Enrichment Activities” students will be able to acquire “homework passes” redeemable next semester for attending a certain (yet undetermined) number of classes.
We will continue to offer free lunch for children between the ages of 1-18 through the regular school calendar. In order to take advantage of this service you must call the school office at 308.286.5600 or email tmiller@hccardinals.org by 1:00 the day before and indicate how many lunches you would like. The lunches may be picked up at the Elementary School between 12:00-12:30 each day. Please note: Lunches will not be offered Friday, April 10th or Monday, April 13th.
I have received many queries regarding our seniors’ graduation and graduation ceremonies. Because of the Governor’s directive, we will be unable to hold our Graduation Ceremonies on May 9th as originally scheduled. While we are still very much in the dark as to how the future will play out with this COVID-19 crisis, we will do everything in our power to have some type of graduation ceremony for our graduating students.
I will do my best to keep you informed as to the district’s educational plans and developments as the building closures continue.
Finally, as we are now in the holiest of weeks, I encourage you to join me in asking Our Lord for His protection for our children, families, and community during this national crisis.
Sincerely,
Tony Primavera
Superintendent
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