Argos School Superintendent Ned Speicher outlined a few goals with the school board during their last meeting.
Speicher said a road map for a post-COVID school year is on the list along with addressing the problems identified from COVID such as recovery learning and social-emotional health of students and staff. He noted that middle school students seemed to be the biggest group of children who were affected the most and efforts will be made to attend to the needs of those students.
Recovery learning is in place and new staff members have been hired to help students with social-emotional health to give them the extra support needed to have a successful school year.
Speicher said students and teachers will have new computers this year so there will be a bit of training for everyone. The classroom technology will be streamlined so interactions with all computers will be seamless. Speicher believes the new wireless infrastructure throughout the entire school corporation will aid in that effort.
A new technology security system will also make entry into school buildings more secure. The current system is antiquated and does not operate the best at times.
Additionally, Speicher commented that the office staff will have to effectively manage all of the ESSER, CARES, FEMA, Small Rural Schools, and other recovery grants, initiate the Canvas system, and lift off the new reading program for all grades to coordinate reading efforts.
Overall, Speicher said goals for the next school year will focus on getting back to a regular feel of learning and fun.
“We just need to go back to our kids being able to be kids,” stated Speicher. “If we can get them back to being kids and get them through the scare of all of this….I need to hear laughter in the hallways. From Spring Break on, we started getting to a more normal scene. They’re kids and we’re going to educate them and they’re going to have a great time and I think it’s just a real focus the school district needs to go with.”
The school board members approved the goals with a unanimous vote.
