School Board prepares meals program for idled students

CENTERVILLE —- The St. Mary School Board declared a public emergency Tuesday in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. One goal of the declaration is make possible a feeding program for children across the parish beginning Monday.
The program will offer a “Grab N’ Go” breakfast and a lunch to St. Mary kids 18 and under at no cost 10:30 a.m.-noon each weekday through April 9, just before the first date schools may be allowed to resume classes under Gov. John Bel Edwards’ executive order.
The meals will be distributed at curbside. Cafeterias will not be open.
The meals will be delivered at three schools: Franklin Junior High, 525 Morris St.. Franklin; Patterson Junior High, 225 Catherine St., Patterson; and Morgan City Junior High, 911 Marguerite St., Morgan City.
The proclamation said that “while the cancellation of school will hopefully serve to combat the spread of the virus, such cancellations put may put children at risk of not receiving enough healthy meals during the prolonged closure.”
Board Vice President Pearl Rack and member Sylvia Lockett said having one school to serve the west end of the parish may not be enough.
“Kids in Four Corners will not be able to travel to Franklin because they don’t have transportation,” Lockett said.
Students who normally attend J.S. Aucoin Elementary in Amelia may have the same problem, she said.
But the limitation is the number of school system cafeteria employees who have volunteered to prepare the food
After the meeting, Claire Guarisco, who directs the district’s food services, said some of the cooks have children of their own to care for while school is out. Others are older or have conditions such as diabetes that make them potentially vulnerable to COVID-19.
Guarisco said she doesn’t know how many children will come to the schools for meals. She based her plans on the number of people available to prepare them.
The declaration gives Superintendent Teresa Bagwell authority “to continue to pay school employees their regular compensation during the period schools are closed.”
Board member Joseph C. Foulcard asked whether a stipend might attract more cooks to work on the feeding program during the school closure. The answer from the staff was yes.
The declaration gives Bagwell “the authority to supply and arrange for the delivery of meals to all children in the parish, eighteen (18) years of age or younger. …”
She also has the authority:
To enter agreements for equipment and supplies needed for services related to COVID-19.
To adjust the school calendar.
To adjust work schedules, curriculum, compensation and staff assignments.
To apply to state and federal agencies for waivers from regulations.
To apply for waivers, grants, reimbursements and aid for “Covid-19 related matters.”
To provided optional supplemental educational materials to students.
To take other action necessary to implement the other directives.
Bagwell said she has been on conference calls with state education officials.
On a Tuesday call, “they said there are three priorities: keep them healthy, keep them fed and keep them safe,” Bagwell said.
But she said there are signs officials are preparing for a longer interruption of school than the anticipated April 13 date would indicate. They include easing of testing requirements and teacher evaluations based on test scores. There may be no accountability scores for districts or schools this year.
“This is an ever-changing landscape,” Bagwell said. “I think the governor mentioned it’s a new normal. The new normal is one thing today, another thing tomorrow.”
President Michael Taylor suggested one calendar change: changing the date of the district’s spring break to the week before April 13 to cut down on the amount of class time students will miss. Students will be out of class April 6-10 anyway.
As the calendar is now, St. Mary kids wouldn’t return to school April 13 even if the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted then. That would be the second day of St. Mary’s six-day spring break.
“I was just thinking of the children,” Taylor said. “They’re already missing a month of class and instruction. I hate to see us lose any more instructional time for the kids.”
But the board voted to keep the current calendar in place. So the first day St. Mary students return to class would be April 20 even if the school closure order is lifted April 13.