Schools Close Due To Coronavirus

Jeff Davis County Schools have been closed for the last two weeks and, as of Tuesday morning, School Superintendent Chris Roppe and his colleagues in other school systems around the staff have been given no information on how long Georgia schools will be closed.
“Honestly, based on the information from the governor’s office, we haven’t heard a lot about any update, on an extension or any kind of statement that we’re going to stick with the current game plan,” Roppe said Tuesday.
Roppe and other superintendents in the First District Regional Educational Service Agency, known by the acronym RESA, have been almost constantly in touch with each other to share ideas and collaborate on how to provide meals and student instruction during the time schools are closed.
“With this being unprecedented, there’s not many people that know how to handle this,” Roppe said. “But we’re collaborating with each other and sharing about ideas.”
To keep on top of things, Roppe has planned a virtual meeting with school principals and central office directors for today (Wednesday) to keep everyone in the system coordinated and knowledgeable about the situation, and get everyone prepared in case there is an extension on the length of time the schools will be closed.
Last week, the school system began preparing a hot meal for lunch and breakfast and delivering them to nine locations where students can pick up the meals. Meals are delivered to the Hallspur Road area, Edgewood Villa, Hammock Homes, Happyland, McDaniel Trailer Park, Hillcrest Apartments, Jeff Davis Farmers Market, Denton Park and Jeff Davis Primary School.
Roppe said the first day of meal deliveries, last Tuesday, there were 399 meals delivered, by Friday that had increased to over 760.
Originally, food service workers and school system drivers delivered the meals but Roppe said this week they have over 50 volunteers from the schools’ staffs pitching in to help.
“We’ve been blessed by the response from the community and the staff to try to pull together to work our way through this,” Roppe said.
Teachers are continuing to keep the learning process going by providing work packets for students to complete work while not in school. Roppe said the work information could be accessed online or picked up at the schools in person.
“Almost 1,400 student work packets were given out last Wednesday at the five school locations,” Roppe said.
Additional information can be obtained at the school system’s web site or its Facebook page.