BELPRE - Teachers, staff and administrators with the Belpre City Schools District joined in a breakfast Tuesday morning to meet new employees and teachers while they kicked off the new school year.
"We had a very busy summer, even though we weren't all here and in classrooms," said district Superintendent Harry Fleming.
Teachers have been attending seminars and taking classes to keep things fresh for students while children have participated in programs such as Safety Town and district maintenance crews and custodians have been preparing the school buildings for the upcoming months of learning.
"We are all here because we care about the kids," Fleming said. "I am proud of you and I want to make this a great, great school year."
Those in attendance at the morning meeting in the Belpre Elementary School gymnasium also learned classrooms will continue to receive technology updates with more interactive electronic whiteboard systems being placed in the schools.
Larry Lorentz, the district's director of instruction, said the district currently has 30 whiteboards, which use digital projectors and electronic pens to allow students and teachers to work on virtual chalkboards with the help of laptop computers, and plans to add about 30 more to various classrooms in both Belpre High School and the elementary school.
"We have 10 new whiteboards to install in Belpre Elementary and plan to had a number more to the high school to aid teachers," Lorentz said. The money to pay for these systems has come from grant funds.
The nearly two-hour meeting ended with the presentation of more than 50 backpacks and a wide variety of school supplies for students in need.
"The (supplies) have been part of our commitment to the children of our community," said Joyce Mather, director of the United Way Alliance of the Mid-Ohio Valley, which donated the items. "These supplies are not for the teachers to use in their classrooms, but for them to give to students in the district who don't have them."
