News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Overton County Schools will end its school year a week earlier than planned.
Director of Schools Mark Winningham said that final week is used to complete tasks that won’t be necessary due to the shutdown.
“The last day of student work is going to be May 15,” Winningham said. “The last day, I think, was going to be May 22, but that last week is typically taking final exams or doing whatever is left to do.”
Winningham said Livingston Academy’s graduation ceremony is scheduled for July 11.
“We’re not exactly sure where that’s going to be,” Winningham said. “The plan right now is to hopefully have it at Tennessee Tech’s Hooper Eblen Center, but we’re still not sure it that’s going to be a possibility at this time. A final decision on that will be made on and announced on June 22.”
Winningham added that 8th grade promotion ceremonies will be organized by each individual schools.
Although making plans for next year have been difficult, Winningham said school officials have leaned a lot while adapting this year.
“Going forward, I feel like we will have to do more actual in-person teaching remotely,” Winningham said. “We know it is. Universities have been doing it for years, but we’ve never done it in a public school setting, but I think that’s something we will probably have to start looking at as a possibility if we have something like this again.”
Winningham said that it was still to early in the planning process to announce to teachers how they need to plan for next year.
“We’re still in the process of developing several plans,” Winningham said. “It will depend upon what the opening of school may look like. We’re still in the development process, but we haven’t finalized any of those things as of today.”
The whole community, according to Winningham, has come together to support Overton County students during the shut-down.
“I would like to say how much we appreciate our food service people, our teachers, our administrators, our students, and our parents as far as what they have done over the course of the last few months. It’s been really outstanding,” Winningham said.
