Mayor, Superintendent Commend Community
May 27, 2020 at 10:40 p.m.
Mayor, Superintendent Commend Community
By David [email protected]
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer highlighted such actions by community service agencies at the weekly press briefing Wednesday on the COVID-19 pandemic, while Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert spoke about those taken by his corporation’s staff.
Every week, Thallemer gets on a call with many social services in the community, discussing needs and other topics. Wednesday, he read a list of those providers on that call and the type of emergency/recovery services they provide.
Salvation Army is helping with rental assistance and food assistance, he said. Kosciusko Community Senior Services helps older adults with resources, while Fellowship Missions provides services to the homeless and those with addictions. Combined Community Services is helping with utility and food assistance. Beaman Home is helping those with domestic violence issues.
“And I know there are a lot more, but these are the larger providers of services specifically related to the COVID pandemic that are being offered in the community, and certainly will be offered indefinitely,” Thallemer said. “I appreciate that group getting together every week. They’re trying to fill the gaps, and it’s a very heartfelt thank you to everything that everyone in the community is doing. This group does a great job.”
Hoffert said back in February, “We started seeing some of the warning signs and really worked with our students on handwashing, general hygiene, what this could look like. And as we put out some of those pieces, I remember some of the original reaction was, ‘Why are we doing this?’ And it was, it’s good practice and this seems a little bit different than anything we’ve dealt with before.”
As the first couple of weeks of March arrived, Hoffert said they realized “just how different it truly was.”
He commended a lot of different groups for their quick re-engineering of what had to take place inside the schools almost overnight.
“When we look at our teachers, we look at them having to change their lessons. From day No. 1, we said that our schools are not closed, our physical buildings are closed. Our education is not closed,” he said, noting the last eight to 10 weeks have been a challenge.
“We’re very fortunate as a community ... our technology department is incredible,” Hoffert said. “We ended up being one of the leaders really when we look at technology because of the community investment that we had in 1-to-1.”
He said other school corporations tried to quickly piece together technology to provide eLearning to their students. “We’re very thankful that we did not have to do that,” Hoffert said, adding that WCS has had 1-to-1 for five to six years.
“So a big thank you to our teachers. A big thank you to our transportation department. Our bus drivers turned from delivering students to delivering food packages. They also went to delivering wifi,” Hoffert said.
During school hours, WCS’s buses are wifi enabled so the buses could sit out at different communities to provide schoolchildren with wifi so they could do their eLearning.
“Our food service had to change very quickly. Traditionally, inside of our schools, we were about a 50% free and reduced lunch population. That’s a number that’s put together by the Department of Agriculture to signify students that needed some sort of assistance on their daily lunches that they received through the schools,” Hoffert said.
He said WCS realized that number of free and reduced lunch students is still going to change and it increased as family’s job situations changed.
“So quickly they moved from creating hot meals inside of schools to – between our transportation and our food service – we were doing 2,800 meals, and when you times that out, each one of those meals through our pick-ups was 10 meals that happened throughout the week,” Hoffert said.
Every Monday, he said roughly 2,300 meals were picked up at Lakeview Middle School for several hours. Another 500 were hand-delivered to students who WCS knew didn’t have access to come pick meals up. Another 500 Boomerang Backpacks go out.
“I want to say a big thank you to Tracey Akers who is our head school nurse. She really developed the program. But, again, we wanted to make sure that program did not stop because once again that need is probably larger than it’s ever been before,” Hoffert said.
The transportation department dropped the Boomerang Backpacks off on Fridays to students for the weekend and include “essential” supplies, he said.
Hoffert said WCS’s maintenance staff has done an “incredible” job of just going through and disinfecting buildings.
“A big thank you to our parents. We know that they have taken on a new role ... because they have taken on a role of being a teacher,” he said.
“And just a big thank you out to our community,” Hoffert said, thanking Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington, Remington’s office and Communicable Disease Nurse Teresa Reed for their assistance; the mayor and his office for the discussions on reopenings and what that will look like; and the county for their help.
“This is a community that comes together. People ask me what’s special about our community. This is it right here. Our community has come together. It circled around the needs of our community ... whether that’s food needs, whether that’s wifi needs, whether that’s planning needs, whether that’s childcare needs,” Hoffert said.
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Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer highlighted such actions by community service agencies at the weekly press briefing Wednesday on the COVID-19 pandemic, while Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert spoke about those taken by his corporation’s staff.
Every week, Thallemer gets on a call with many social services in the community, discussing needs and other topics. Wednesday, he read a list of those providers on that call and the type of emergency/recovery services they provide.
Salvation Army is helping with rental assistance and food assistance, he said. Kosciusko Community Senior Services helps older adults with resources, while Fellowship Missions provides services to the homeless and those with addictions. Combined Community Services is helping with utility and food assistance. Beaman Home is helping those with domestic violence issues.
“And I know there are a lot more, but these are the larger providers of services specifically related to the COVID pandemic that are being offered in the community, and certainly will be offered indefinitely,” Thallemer said. “I appreciate that group getting together every week. They’re trying to fill the gaps, and it’s a very heartfelt thank you to everything that everyone in the community is doing. This group does a great job.”
Hoffert said back in February, “We started seeing some of the warning signs and really worked with our students on handwashing, general hygiene, what this could look like. And as we put out some of those pieces, I remember some of the original reaction was, ‘Why are we doing this?’ And it was, it’s good practice and this seems a little bit different than anything we’ve dealt with before.”
As the first couple of weeks of March arrived, Hoffert said they realized “just how different it truly was.”
He commended a lot of different groups for their quick re-engineering of what had to take place inside the schools almost overnight.
“When we look at our teachers, we look at them having to change their lessons. From day No. 1, we said that our schools are not closed, our physical buildings are closed. Our education is not closed,” he said, noting the last eight to 10 weeks have been a challenge.
“We’re very fortunate as a community ... our technology department is incredible,” Hoffert said. “We ended up being one of the leaders really when we look at technology because of the community investment that we had in 1-to-1.”
He said other school corporations tried to quickly piece together technology to provide eLearning to their students. “We’re very thankful that we did not have to do that,” Hoffert said, adding that WCS has had 1-to-1 for five to six years.
“So a big thank you to our teachers. A big thank you to our transportation department. Our bus drivers turned from delivering students to delivering food packages. They also went to delivering wifi,” Hoffert said.
During school hours, WCS’s buses are wifi enabled so the buses could sit out at different communities to provide schoolchildren with wifi so they could do their eLearning.
“Our food service had to change very quickly. Traditionally, inside of our schools, we were about a 50% free and reduced lunch population. That’s a number that’s put together by the Department of Agriculture to signify students that needed some sort of assistance on their daily lunches that they received through the schools,” Hoffert said.
He said WCS realized that number of free and reduced lunch students is still going to change and it increased as family’s job situations changed.
“So quickly they moved from creating hot meals inside of schools to – between our transportation and our food service – we were doing 2,800 meals, and when you times that out, each one of those meals through our pick-ups was 10 meals that happened throughout the week,” Hoffert said.
Every Monday, he said roughly 2,300 meals were picked up at Lakeview Middle School for several hours. Another 500 were hand-delivered to students who WCS knew didn’t have access to come pick meals up. Another 500 Boomerang Backpacks go out.
“I want to say a big thank you to Tracey Akers who is our head school nurse. She really developed the program. But, again, we wanted to make sure that program did not stop because once again that need is probably larger than it’s ever been before,” Hoffert said.
The transportation department dropped the Boomerang Backpacks off on Fridays to students for the weekend and include “essential” supplies, he said.
Hoffert said WCS’s maintenance staff has done an “incredible” job of just going through and disinfecting buildings.
“A big thank you to our parents. We know that they have taken on a new role ... because they have taken on a role of being a teacher,” he said.
“And just a big thank you out to our community,” Hoffert said, thanking Kosciusko County Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington, Remington’s office and Communicable Disease Nurse Teresa Reed for their assistance; the mayor and his office for the discussions on reopenings and what that will look like; and the county for their help.
“This is a community that comes together. People ask me what’s special about our community. This is it right here. Our community has come together. It circled around the needs of our community ... whether that’s food needs, whether that’s wifi needs, whether that’s planning needs, whether that’s childcare needs,” Hoffert said.
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