Additional resources from the federal level will be coming to USD 253 Emporia Public Schools to address issues brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
During the USD 253 Board of Education meeting Wednesday evening, Superintendent Kevin Case announced the district would receive financial aid as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. Case says the district has been given preliminary numbers of what the allocation will look like, however, the exact dollar amount is currently pending.
Case says the money will be available for any issue which was created due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Case says one of the district’s next steps will be to identify what its exact needs are to best determine where the additional resources would have the greatest impact. Once the funds are made available the district will have until September of 2021 to use them.
In a separate update Wednesday, Case announced the district has set an official date of Sunday, May 17 for graduation activities for the 2020 senior class. What those activities will look like exactly is still being worked out according to Case, however, he says any ceremony or related activities will be conducted with input from the 2020 class in mind while also adhering to health guidelines from the state and local levels.
Case says it is important to have some form of graduation activities to provide the seniors and their families with a sense of closure and certainty.
While an exact ceremony is still in the works, Case says the district has purchased signs for the 2020 senior class to display at their homes. According to Case the signs have been ordered and should arrive within the next 10 days. Once they arrive the district will formulate a plan to distribute them to the senior class.
EHS Principal Dathan Fischer is scheduled to meet with representatives of the senior class before the end of this week to continue finalizing graduation plans.
In other business, the board received an update on the $78 million Building for the Future improvement project for district facilities. According to Zac Snethen of HTK Architects, the architecture firm heading up the project, the first three buildings, EHS, Walnut Elementary and the district’s new early learning center, are nearing the end of the schematic design portion of the project.
The next phase will be to move into the design development portion of work where architects will continue to refine the overall scope of each individual project.
The USD 253 Board of Education will next meet Wednesday, May 13 at 7 pm.
