The Mena Public Schools would like to take this opportunity to put our patrons at ease & address recent rumors concerning Covid-19. We are aware of an increase of cases in the area. As of November 10th there are 7 positive cases involving staff & students. At this time there are no plans to close for an extended period of time unless we do not have enough adults to safely monitor students. If and when we reach that point, we will make the public aware through our normal communication methods.
Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Johnny Key addressed such rumors on Tuesday as a part of Governor Asa Hutchinson’s daily Covid-19 Update. Key said “There is a rumor that the state might call off on-site instruction between Thanksgiving and the Christmas break. There is not a plan to do that, and it has not been suggested to the Governor.”
You may check the ACHI School District Geographic Boundary Level Maps to see the trends for new positive COVID-19 cases for school districts. Just follow the link https://achi.net/covid19/
Click the link for the meal order form for the week of November 16th-20th. PIck up is Friday from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham & Mena High School.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSel720L9Gxpp0xjQUkSKZFcjcIgmBbKpe4MmbOBkAJOGFPTeg/viewform
As part of a coordinated response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in partnership with the Office for Education Policy (OEP) at the University of Arkansas has developed a Parent/Guardian Survey for soliciting family input on what is working now and what may be considered for the future.
We encourage you to share the survey link with your families and ask them to complete the survey before November 20th. A Spanish version of the survey is available here.
The survey seeks to involve families in an organized, ongoing and timely way in planning, review, and improvement. The survey will provide feedback regarding:
* family concerns
* how families are making decisions
* family awareness of options and resources available
* family considerations for the future
The intention of this survey is not to identify individual school or district responses, but rather to establish an understanding of the state as a whole. The information will be aggregated by region only; therefore, families will be asked to identify the region of the state in which they live in order to understand the distribution of the survey without specifically identifying any district or school by name.
OEP will be sharing results at the December State Board meeting.
Follow this link to the Survey:https://uark.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6X7aRF3ErNNXFel...
Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://uark.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6X7aRF3ErNNXFel...
Click the link for the meal order form for the week of November 16th-20th. PIck up is Friday from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham & Mena High School.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSel720L9Gxpp0xjQUkSKZFcjcIgmBbKpe4MmbOBkAJOGFPTeg/viewform
Click the link for the meal order form for the week of November 9th-13th. PIck up is Friday from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham & Mena High School.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzWskHVttYPxEZDVMEKoA3wmAYMklJ_J7EkE0_h8kvnJhCfA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR3mqMxdDgj7nox7lWff2HSNgtcqJgMviv1iqzZcU8rnkbsKEMWnelcerkI
As with many other normal school routines, our Parent/Teacher Conferences will be different. Our teachers, paras, and principals have been in contact with parents and guardians in the first 9 weeks by phone, email, and messaging through social media. Our teachers have been logging their interactions with you as an ongoing parent/teacher conference.
Our regular conferences are scheduled for November 10th, 11th, and 12th, on our District Calendar. Our teachers will be in regular communication as the need arises but if you have not conferenced with your child(ren)’s teacher(s), please contact them and schedule a call or video conversation to take place on November 10th through 12th, from the hours of 3:30 to 7:30 pm.
Click the link for the meal order form for the week of November 9th-13th. PIck up is Friday from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham & Mena High School.
https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSfzWskHVttYPx.../viewform
Blended & virtual student meals for November 2nd - November 6th may be picked up today at Louise Durham Elementary or Mena High School between 1 and 2 pm.
November menu's for LDE !
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Our funding for next year is based on the number of meals that we serve this year and the number of free/reduced applications we receive. Which can be accessed on the Mena school website, under food service information.
In an effort to maintain our funding for school year 21-22, Mena Public Schools will be providing meals for students participating in Flex Fridays, blended learning, and PCVA. Blended and PCVA students can request a week's worth of meals by accessing the
link each week on the school website under food service information or there is a link shared on Facebook each week.
Flex Friday meals will be sent home with students on Thursday afternoon with students who will not be attending in-person classes on Friday. In order to meet USDA meal pattern requirements, some items may need to be refrigerated as soon
as your child arrives home. Please check their meal bags for these.
There will be a form posted on the Mena Schools website, and the school's Facebook pages. We would appreciate you filling this out if you plan for your child to learn from home on Fridays. If in the future you decide not to participate you may opt-out by contacting Susan Bodey, Aramark food service director @
479-234-1161, or Amy Bartow, Mena schools food service director @ 479-216-0060.
Thank You for your support during these trying times!
Susan Bodey
Follow the link to the Flex Friday Meal Order Form. https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSd4vRrLvAy.../viewform...
Students bringing lunch from home must take all three in order to be free.
Click the link for the meal order form for the week of November 2nd-6th. PIck up is Friday from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham & Mena High School.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOG-sWE3CuHP56xPONR7UNug5LM9iQoZmyepN4uAIovJCLUg/viewform
Congratulations to second grade teacher, Mrs. Shannon Miller. She was the winner of the Arvest Bank's "WE LOVE TEACHERS" campaign! We are so proud of her and lucky to have such a wonderful teacher!
Blended & virtual student meals for October 26th-October 30th may be picked up today at Louise Durham Elementary or Mena High School between 1 and 2 pm.
Mr. Benny Weston announces the addition of "Flex Fridays" to the Mena Public School's Ready for Learning Plan! To watch the video click on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgKktdNJiGE&t=10s
If you would like to read the adjusted Ready for Learning Plan in it's entirety click on the link below.
https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/802963/Mena_Public_Schools_COVID_Plan_Ready_for_Learning.pdf
The Mena School Board met for their October meeting on Tuesday the 20th in the Mena High School Library. It was a brief meeting but included significant topics on the agenda.
The board began by approving the closing documents on a bond issue. The closing date is November 5th, 2020. This will reduce the current interest rate from 4% to a new rate of 2.55%. This change will save the district $250,000 per year for the first four years and $2.2 million over the life of the bond.
Superintendent Benny Weston reported that a part of the new facility near Holly Harshman Elementary will carry a Bearcat theme. The facility is owned by the Rich Mountain Nursing & Rehabilitation Center & they will be naming one of the homes Bearcat House & another the Ladycat House.
Next on the agenda was discussion on adding “Flex Friday” to the district’s Ready for Learning Plan. The addition was approved & the first Flex Friday will be October 30th. A video explaining this adjustment will be released on Mena Public School’s social media & website.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lee Smith reported to the board that this year’s Annual Report to the Public will be virtual & available to patrons of the district online.
The board was then made aware of upcoming training dates available to them & the meeting was adjourned.
Tomorrow is picture day for our Heroes! This is the picture that will be in our yearbook, we can't wait for all of their gorgeous pictures!
Click the link for the meal order form for the week of October 26th-30th. PIck up is Friday from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham & Mena High School.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmGfEKqUNExBm6xVWgERoOFam3F0NLUD7DYmHwz6BSjUPiyw/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2QKQBTf5xjq3dq8q7iuL3RWoGW_ZByMnuJn6UZPes8r3n2ywZLzgJ-qgA
To: All ESS Staff serving Mena School District
From: Benny Weston
Re: Your Safety
We want to assure our substitute teachers that Mena Public Schools is making sincere efforts to reduce everyone’s risk of exposure to COVID-19. Although we cannot guarantee that exposure will not happen, we are doing these things to maintain a safe environment:
1. Reducing the interactions between teachers and other students not in their classrooms through scheduling and student pods.
2. Requiring masks to be worn by all people in the buildings ages 10 and older.
3. Reducing exchange of materials such as food trays and books.
4. Disinfecting surfaces daily and providing hand sanitizing in every room throughout the district.
5. Maintaining social distancing protocols in classrooms and commons areas when possible and maintaining students pods when it is not.
6. Not allowing large assemblies.
7. Restricting outside guests from entering the buildings to maintain a controlled environment.
8. Quarantining infected individuals and their close contacts using Arkansas Department of Health standards, which are strictly adhered to.
We feel that our school buildings are as safe as any other facility which hosts large numbers of people and would invite all substitute teachers to return to the classrooms. Our cases at Mena Public Schools have been very few and we feel that our attention to the standards and protocols are why we have been successful at controlling the spread of COVID-19.
Please remember that Mena Public Schools will be closed on Friday 10/16. That means that Virtual & Blended meal pick up will be today from 1pm-2pm at Louise Durham Elementary & Mena High School. These are meals for 10/19 thru 10/23...
