Monongalia County school board members got to do something during their meeting Tuesday night that hasn’t always been possible over the past three years: They got to look ahead.
With the tide of the pandemic rolling back out — for now— they discussed the first day of school for the 2022-23 year, which is Aug. 23.
And they heard about the Summer Avalanche. That’s the name of the summer enrichment program, which again rumbles across Mon schools July 5-28.
Susan Taylor, who coordinates student programming for the district, said the Avalanche will pile on the academic fun, from first-graders to those hitting senior year — just as last year’s pandemic-fueled inaugural offering.
Online registration begins April 27, Taylor said. Visit https://boe.mono.k12.wv.us/ for more information.
Courses cover everything from the rudiments of money management for elementary school youngsters to video games as literature, along with other instruction designed to ease the transition from high school to college.
COVID-19 caused the first Avalanche last year. The district funded it with a $1.4 million outlay from the federal Elementary and Secondary School Relief Fund, which was created in response to the pandemic.
Particularly, the first wave of the pandemic and the sequestering of every student in the state after Gov. Jim Justice ordered the shuttering of schools on a Friday the 13th in March 2020.
The idea of the Avalanche was to help students regain their academic and social footing after months of being away from in-person teachers and classmates.
After last year’s success, the district got to work on this year.
“We really got going in February,” said Taylor, who began her career in education as a classroom teacher and reading specialist. “It’s basically one big calendar for us.”
Since those early pandemic days of 2020, life in West Virginia, and everywhere else, has been one big COVID report — especially for students, their parents and teachers.
The report from the state Department of Health and Human Resources on Tuesday morning showed 54 of West Virginia’s 55 counties showing green, the best hue in terms of infection rates for coronavirus tracking.
Wirt was the lone county presenting with gold on the map.
To date, a total of 6,774 state residents have died from the contagion and its complications, the DHHR said. Of the five pediatric cases noted across the state, two of the young patients are in intensive care.
From March 25 through March 31 in Mon schools, the district reported six positive cases among students, with three staffers also presenting with positive diagnoses. Those were the most-recent numbers charted by the school system as of Tuesday.
That’s why, when BOE President Nancy Walker tossed it over to Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. for his COVID chronicle, he got to not do something.
A something that for three years, had been a pandemic-normal part of the proceedings.
“Madam President, I don’t have a report,” he said. “There are no major changes. Things are going well.”
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