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November 16, 2022

Kent School District closes Meridian Elementary after gun incident

Kent University District officers shut Meridian Elementary University on Tuesday, Nov. 15 soon after a gun incident on Monday around the faculty resulted in no arrest.

“Meridian Elementary school will be shut on Nov. 15 out of an abundance of warning,” in accordance to a shorter article on the school’s web-site Tuesday.

The put up made no mention of the factors for closing the college at 25621 140th Ave. SE on the East Hill.

But on Monday, Kent Police launched a statement that the university went into lockdown immediately after officers responded to a report of a gentleman with a gun at a household in the 25800 block of 140th Avenue SE that borders the school’s playfield. The 26-calendar year-aged male lives at the house.

Valley SWAT responded and police hostage negotiators spoke to the person in an endeavor to get him to appear out of the household, in accordance to law enforcement. At some point, a relatives member returned within to the dwelling and took the gun from the person. Police ended up instructed on a 911 get in touch with the guy had pointed the gun at a family members member but experienced not produced threats.

“Due to an abundance of warning, Meridian Elementary School was placed into lockdown all through this incident,” according to a police assertion. “The suspect under no circumstances remaining the residence, and the gun was in no way fired, but the property was around a part of their campus playfields.”

No one was wounded for the duration of the incident and no arrest was manufactured.

“The conditions of the incident did not provide the officers the authorized justification to enter the property for a group caretaking intervention, and the officers had been advised there was insufficient probable cause to enter the house for an arrest,” according to law enforcement.

Officers took custody of the rifle the man had, according to police.

Parents of Meridian Elementary learners have lots of inquiries. Quite a few posted on social media, prior to the university announcement about the closure, that they would not be sending their young children to college on Tuesday.

“I am maintaining my kids house now from Meridian elementary,” according to a single dad or mum. “I just really don’t t experience risk-free with the ending of yesterday.”

A different mum or dad agreed.

“We felt the identical way just after yesterday’s craziness and determined previous night that our young ones ended up remaining dwelling,” in accordance to the remark.

Kent Police have not nevertheless responded to thoughts from the Kent Reporter for a lot more particulars about Monday’s incident and if the section labored with faculty officials to propose that the faculty be closed on Tuesday.

Apart from the school closure, Kent University District officials have not produced any other info. Kent Police also have not launched any other info due to the fact Monday’s statement.

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January 9, 2022

Waterloo school district closes elementary schools due to inoperable buses Friday

WATERLOO, Iowa (KCRG) – The Waterloo Group College District reported it had to cancel faculty at all its elementary universities apart from for Cunningham on Friday, simply because of “significant bus issues” in the cold climate.

All of jap Iowa was less than a Wind Chill Advisory Friday early morning, with wind chills in the -15 to -30 variety until 9 a.m.

In a release, the district explained the chilly weather conditions induced the fuel to gel in its buses and as a result, lessons are canceled at Becker, Highland, Irving, Kittrell, Kingsley, Lincoln, Lou Henry, Lowell, Orange and Poyner.

The district also apologized to family members for the issues the decision’s timing designed for them.

“This is not the way we would have at any time preferred this morning to go,” Superintendent Lindaman said in a launch. “With the exception of a number of other circumstances through my tenure as superintendent, this was the most regarding condition we have been in. I manufactured a decision that was the finest probable selection to attempt to get youngsters to shelter.”

The district discussed the condition in the following statement:

“Our busses get started picking up center school, substantial college, and Cunningham students all-around 8:50/9:00am (which is commonly the 6:50/7:00am) to decide on up students. As they were setting up to select up middle university students, a handful of busses had the gas start out to gel. Out of 66 routes, most had been working wonderful, but some grew to become inoperable. At the bus garage and the district business office, we quickly commenced finding other busses to aid the route (i.e. Cedar Falls Educational facilities, town transit, and each other bus in town). We also sent directors out promptly to start driving the routes with all out there vans to help guarantee learners who ended up probably already at bus stops could immediately access shelter.

Inside minutes, further busses started to gel and it became obvious that this was an crisis problem. Most children experienced arrived at school for middle, large and Cunningham so we did not want to deliver them back again dwelling (compounding the increasing bus situation), but many others had been continue to waiting for a bus and we desired to emphasis on their basic safety. Cunningham Elementary has an previously start off time than the rest of the elementary schools. Since of this, the majority of Cunningham learners were possibly previously in faculty or en route. College was the safest place for those pupils and so we required to concentration on the 1 Cunningham bus route that was impacted.

At 9:30am, the decision was manufactured to terminate college for the second tier of educational institutions (all elementary other than Cunningham) to:

a) allow us to have ALL busses obtainable to the relaxation of the center, large and Cunningham pupils to get to school, and

b) right away mitigate the rising worries about obtaining our 2nd tier of students to school.”

December 11, 2021

The Recorder – Committee closes School Choice seats at Northfield, Bernardston elementary schools

NORTHFIELD — Based on requests from both elementary schools and the interim superintendent’s recommendation, the Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee voted Thursday to close the district’s open School Choice seats at Bernardston and Northfield elementary schools.

Interim Superintendent Patricia Kinsella said the principals at both schools have raised concerns about their school’s abilities to take on more students as short staffing and the pandemic’s continued impact add increased stress to the schools.

“Both of the elementary principals are requesting, because of social-emotional needs, because of academic needs and because of space concerns with COVID in their buildings,” Kinsella said, “they are requesting the School Committee consider closing all of the open School Choice seats” in both schools.

The vote closed six seats at Bernardston Elementary School and 20 seats at Northfield Elementary. Two seats in the senior class at Pioneer Valley Regional School were also closed, but only because graduation requirements can get messy if a student transfers this late into the year, according to Kinsella.

Warwick member David Young asked how much potential revenue the district could lose out on by closing the School Choice seats, which each provide $5,000.

“Theoretically those are worth $5,000 apiece,” Young said. “It’s $150,000 of potential income we’re walking away from. I’ll still vote for it though.”

Kinsella noted the district doesn’t typically receive that many School Choice applications this late into the school year, and any help the teachers and administrators can get would be helpful. She said she is normally “an open-arms person,” but welcoming any additional students could be detrimental to the schools.

“There are some significant behavioral needs,” Kinsella said. “I know that in one of the buildings the principal spent yesterday in meetings with the teachers at each grade level reviewing data about the students both in terms of their behavior and their learning.”

School Committee Chair Julie Burke said she felt similarly to Young in that the district might be losing out on revenue, but the concerns of administrators cannot be ignored.

“I feel the same with David’s sentiments that of course, with declining enrollment, it’s so exciting that more kids want to come, so my knee-jerk reaction is with open arms,” Burke said. “However, I need to defer to the experts and the experts are the building principals, the teachers and our superintendent.”

The School Committee voted unanimously to close the recommended seats to any students not currently in the application process.

In other business, the committee voted to continue meeting in a hybrid format and reduced the maximum meeting time from two and a half hours to two hours. Any meeting that exceeds the time limit will reconvene the next week, which is also the current policy.

“I really feel there is a huge benefit to meeting in person,” Burke said. “We often have audio difficulties with folks at home. … I’m not placing blame, it is what it is.”

Other committee members disagreed in the name of safety and time management.

“I agree, meeting in person is ideal,” Warwick member Nathan Swartz said. “Right now, that’s not always an option. The last meeting we had, a couple of our kids had fellow students who were in COVID protocols, so I didn’t feel like it was appropriate for me to go to the meeting in person.”

Bernardston member Jeanne Milton said hybrid allows each town’s representatives the most opportunity to attend the meeting.

“There are only two of us from Bernardston,” Milton said. “Under doctor’s orders I could not attend tonight, that would only leave us with one person if we couldn’t do Google Meet.”

Northfield member Stephanie Winslow said in-person meetings are the best way to conduct business, especially in executive session.

“I’ve always known a School Committee to be in person,” Winslow said. “If the kids are in school, then we can be here.”

The committee opted to remain in a hybrid format with a 7-3 vote, and will reconvene Thursday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m. to continue discussion on the use of private vehicles for transportation to school activities.

Chris Larabee can be reached at [email protected] or 413-930-4081.