By Bette Holland

As the 2020 school year draws to a close, we may look back and reflect on how the pandemic has affected our students, teachers and all of our public school systems, and thank every soul who rallied around our boys and girls to help pull our community through a rough year – they did so with their eyes on the future of our great country.

School systems, buoyed by dedicated individuals, shifted into high gear, as policy decisions closed schoolhouse doors to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Across the country, leaders worked to gather plans that would keep children engaged and to make sure no child went hungry. Bus drivers continued their daily routes, delivering nutritious and tasty meals, prepared by school nutrition staff members and volunteers.

While many students already had tablets and devices, and Internet service in their homes, others who lacked solid connections found those buses and teachers delivering paper packets to their homes. Teachers redesigned and repackaged lessons planned for nine weeks so that they could be delivered in compressed timeframes. As a former high school teacher, I can say that this was a monumental task, gladly and wholeheartedly undertaken by our teachers. My hat is off to these professionals, who made the best of this bad situation. Thank you all.

Now we prepare for the end of this school year. Seniors have missed prom and graduation festivities, the customary and usual rewards they have worked so hard to earn these past 13 years. Our schools, and all of the people who fill them, are doing the best to congratulate these seniors and thank them for their years of dedication and hard work. 

Senior Night is planned next week. Our community newspaper will publish the graduation issue next week and a graduation ceremony is planned for July when we pray restrictions on large gatherings will be a thing of the past. 

Thank you, Class of 2020, for all the years of getting up early, getting to school in the pitch-black mornings, completing your lessons at school, and at home, making your parents and teachers proud, and preparing to lead this country into what will be a brighter tomorrow.

It has been said, “greatness is borne out of adversity.” The Class of 2020 will no doubt be ready for whatever the world may throw at them!