The impact of the coronavirus was felt at Monday’s Hillsboro Board of Education meeting. The board’s usual effort to honor students was canceled, Superintendent Tim Davis said the food truck that usually operates in the summer will run while school is shut down at least from March 16 through April 3, and he said that students could find most information they need about assignments during the break on the school’s website or in packets available at the schools.
The food truck started operating Tuesday and will continue to operate on weekdays through April 3.
The truck will stop at the following locations on the following times: Central office at 10:45 a.m., Hi-Land Terrace at 11:15 a.m., Highland Heights at 11:30 a.m., Cedarwoods Apartments at noon, Liberty Park shelter at 12:30 p.m., Paint Creek fire station at 1:15 p.m., Rocky Fork State Park North Beach area at 2 p.m. and the Highland County Fairgrounds at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“The biggest reason is because we knew we had a lot of students that would be without during the break, kind of like in the summer,” Davis said of the reason to put the food truck in operation. “We got with (food service director) Jessica Walker and she said we could make it happen. A big thank you goes to Jessica, her staff and a lot of volunteers who said they’d work.”
Davis said breakfast would be available with lunch. He said it would not be a hot breakfast, and would be served in a bag.
“Right now we do not know how many people are planning for,” Davis said.
The elementary and middle school/high school buildings were open to students Tuesday and will be open again Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon and 3-6 p.m. for students to pick up assignments.
Davis said the material will be basically review type assignments to help keep students active with school work.
High school students’ assignments will be posted on Google Classroom. Students that do not have internet access or courses that do not have a Google Classroom setup will need to come in to pick up course materials.
“It’s been a crazy week. This is uncharted territory for all of us and we’ll see how it goes,” Davis said.
The superintendent also noted that it is possible the break could last longer than three weeks.
“We hope we can reopen at the date they’ve given us, but we don’t know,” board member Larry Lyons said.
It was also noted that an annual trip by eighth-graders to Washington, D.C., as well as a trip for four robotics students that qualified for the world competition have been canceled due to the virus.
In other business, Davis said work on the district’s new auditorium continues. He said the block walls are going up, starting with what will be the back side of the auditorium, and that concrete slabs have been poured.
The board approved its open enrollment policy for the 2020-21 school year, which Davis said is the same as in recent years. There is no intradistrict open enrollment because there is only one building per grade level. The following restrictions apply to interdistrict open enrollment:
* Open to all Ohio school districts;
* Application deadlines are April 1 through Sept. 30;
* Previous open enrollment students and their siblings will get first preference;
* Enrollment limitations will depend upon space at each grade level;
* Approval of special education students will depend on teacher limits and space.
The food truck volunteers, mostly teachers, according to Davis, include: Anna Aber, Megan Apgar, Cindy Asmus, Paula Barreras, Amy Bieler, Tirina Beiler, Melissa Boysel, Debra Brinson, Lori Brock, Carrie Carey, Candy Cole, Kim Collins, Teresa Cox, Gina Earley, Karen Fraley, Barbara Goode, Stephanie Haines, Chad Haynie, Jennifer Howland, Brandi Johnson, Karen Knisley, Betty McCoy, Karen O’Cull, Brittany Oxley, Leonard Oxley, Beth Purtee, Tina Scott, Robin Smith, Stephanie Thompson, Jody Thornburgh, Amy Vance, Jessica Walker, Kristin Walker, Julie Wertsbaugh and Joni Miller.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522.
