Buckeye Local staff working hard to keep things running, students fed
Trending
DILLONVALE -- The Buckeye Local School District is showing everyone is in this together by thanking staff members for the work they still do amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Superintendent Kim Leonard said a special thank-you video has been posted showing dozens of administrators, teachers, bus drivers, custodians and cooks as they keep the district running during the current lockdown. The video has been posted to YouTube, Facebook and other social media and shows staff preparing meals for the weekly food distribution and performing other necessary tasks to stay operational.
"We have everybody here lending a hand and trying to get everything going. The cooks and aides help prepare breakfast and lunch at each school and the meals also are delivered to eight off-site locations. The bus drivers are delivering the meals and custodians clean and sanitize the buildings and load the buses," Leonard said.
According to Leonard, breakfasts and lunches are doled out on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Buckeye Local Junior-Senior High School in Connorville, Buckeye North Elementary in Brilliant, Buckeye South Elementary in Tiltonsville and Buckeye West Elementary in Adena.
The meals also are available at eight other locations: The New Alexandria Firehouse, Smithfield Friends Church, Kull's Packing Co. in Yorkville, Piney Fork Post Office, Mount Pleasant Church, Rayland Car Wash and the Harrisville Post Office. Children who reside in town also are permitted to walk to the locations.
Monday items include two breakfasts and two lunches for Monday and Tuesday with three breakfasts and three lunches distributed on Wednesdays to cover meals through Friday. Staff members arrive as early as 6:30 a.m. to begin the prep work, and meals are given to all children in grades PreK-12 who are enrolled in the district.
The most recent count indicated that more than 21,700 meals have been distributed between March 17 and April 8 and extra bus drivers have even rode on board to help dole out the food. Meanwhile, Leonard noted that teachers busily prepare lessons and work with students remotely and secretaries and principals field phone calls and aid operations, so everyone was pulling together during this chaotic time.
"They make sure the district is still operational and business is still going on at Buckeye Local," Leonard said.
The video was a token of appreciation for their hard and endless work to get through the pandemic, according to district officials. It can be seen on YouTube at youtu.be/4YQvg475Y. The school plans to create two more videos to post online.