School districts delivers over 200 meals

Students in the Grand Coulee Dam School got their first taste of bus-delivered meals Friday with 215 of them picking up meals delivered by bus two hours after their normal bus pickup time.

Superintendent Paul Turner said the school board meeting on Monday will hopefully occur via Zoom, a teleconferencing software service available for free to anyone with a Mac or Windows computer or a mobile phone or tablet running iOS or Android.

Tuner’s update with more detials on other aspects of the school shutdown, upcoming academics, schedules and more, is below:

March 20, 2020

Parent/community update

Good afternoon, please read the latest update below.

Local brief: Okanogan county continues to have zero confirmed cases of the virus. As of this time, I haven’t received an update from Grant county. They have been posting updates on their websites, I would encourage you to check there if you are interested in the latest numbers.

Breakfast/Lunch program: We had a very successful day with over 200 meals served. Please note the highlighted changes for Monday. Also note: we will not be distributing meals on the weekend.

Grand Coulee Dam Schools  

Food Service 

Our first day serving meals was a huge success! We served 215 meals to children in our communities.  GCDSD will continue serving meals Monday, March 23rd to children 0-18 years of age.  Listed below is important information on where and when to get the meals. 

• Breakfast and lunch will be served at the same time and you will only need to meet the bus, or come pick up once each day. Children must be present to receive these meals.  

• Busses will arrive at your regular bus stop 2 hours later than your normal pick up time for meal distribution (ie. If you catch the bus at 7:15 am, your meal will be delivered at 9:15 am).   

• We have added addition midday meal sites from 12:00-1:00 pm at the following locations: Tillman’s in Elmer City, District Office in Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee Dam Middle School, Fowler’s in Delano, and City Hall in Electric City.   

• Grab and Go meals are offered at Lake Roosevelt School from 9:00-9:30 am, and 12:00-1:00 pm. 

For students that live in the Nespelem area, Nespelem School District will provide Grab and Go meals available from 11:30 am -12:30 pm at the following locations: White Buffalo, New HUD, Old HUD, and City Park. 

Questions that I received:

Extended closure: Still no direction from the state on the possibility of an extended closure.

Academic Notice: Learning reinforcement packets are assembled for next week’s distribution. Be looking for them starting Tuesday.

Important: Buses will not be able to stop at the exact bus stop that it would normally, due to safety. They will be stopping as close to the normal stop as possible in a safe place off the road. Please see the distribution information for routes and times so that you can receive meals and Learning Reinforcement packets.

We at GCDSD thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. Please contact the Elementary at (509)633-0730 or the High School at (509)633-1442 if you have questions about distribution or packets.

As we continue to evolve into this new world of education, virtual communication is becoming the mainstay. Two areas are being affected.

1. For the safely of all, I have directed staff to develop plans that will allow them to work remotely from home. We will be reducing staff at school to essential needs.

2. Beginning Monday, our first virtual board meeting will take place. We are currently testing the system and plan to implement this new reality Monday night via ZOOM. We are setting up the HS cafeteria as a public access point for the meeting. If you have questions please let us know.

Reminder school extension: The end of the school year will be extended from June 11th to June 19th. Please mark your calendars.

I want to give a big shout out to the LR staff who have been working very hard this past week to design a transition plan. You should be proud of the staff that work with your children on a daily basis and give them a big “Thank You”. It is well deserved!

Continue to expect a daily update as we continue to make changes.

Mr. Turner