BEATRICE - The last day of virtual learning this school year for Beatrice Public School students will be May 14th….ending a year that saw learning from home online…as the coronavirus pandemic took students away from school buildings.

Superintendent Jason Alexander says the district is putting together a process for students to exchange materials.
"Whether it be materials students still have in the schools, or materials that students have taken home that they need to get back to school. We have to create an appropriate process for all of that to take place, and we have a meeting scheduled next week, to do that".

Alexander said the process will emphasize safety and efficiency.
"Students will begin returning materials to school on May 15th in an organized fashion for each building, which meets Directed Health Measures at that particular time".

Students would bring back materials and pick up items they own that were left in their school building. Alexander foresees accomplishing the exchange by a numerical or alphabetical method.

"Each building being different, may have a system they feel would work better and it would require entry at one point of the building and exit at another area of the building".

Staff members will return to buildings May 4th to begin shut-down work for the year and plan professional development activities for May 18th through the 20th.
The popular summer program in the district called “The Best Possible Summer”, will not take place this year because of the pandemic. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jackie Nielsen says it will be back, in 2021.

Nielsen said there will be summer instruction for kindergarten through 3rd grade students…and possibly some 4th and 5th graders needing more work in the area of reading or math.
"It will be June 1st through the 25th, and we will operate on what we did previously for summer school, however, we will be doing this online".

The summer program will provide 15 to 20-minute sessions utilizing Zoom. There will be consultation with the students’ teachers and feedback to the students themselves. There is no cost to qualifying families for the online summer sessions.