MCSD praises work of many support staff

     Monticello Superintendent Brian Jaeger praised the numerous support staff who are part of the Monticello Community School District.

     May 10-14 is Support Staff Appreciation Week.

     “I am not sure if everyone knows this, but there are actually more support staff in our school district than teaching staff,” he shared.

     Support staff are part of the classrooms, food service custodians, office, bus drivers, maintenance, technology, and Panther Academy.

     “This is such a broad range of positions, so think about how much our support staff employees influence our students’ academic and emotional needs on a daily basis,” praised Jaeger. “To all of our support staff workers, I thank you for your flexibility and understanding as we changed our calendar and your days/hours multiple times to meet the needs of our ever-changing world.

     “I thank you for reminding our students for the 10,000^th time to keep their masks up,” continued Jaeger. “I thank you for bag lunches. I thank you for transporting our students and making their safety your priority. I thank you for all the extra cleaning that we have needed during this school year. I thank you for coming to work every day, even when we were all trying to understand more about the risks of being around big groups of people. I thank you for always being excellent role models to our students. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do to make the MCSD a great place to be a student.”

     Jaeger urged the community to thank all school support staff and to show your appreciation.

     COVID cases are staying a minimum in Jones County, specifically in Monticello.

     “We continue to hear good news in our little corner of the plant,” Jaeger said.

     The 14-day positivity rate in Jones County, as of May 7 sits at 5 percent; 3 percent in Monticello.

     There have been two reported COVID cases in the last week in Monticello; five cases in the last two weeks.

     The MCSD has five students and no staff in isolation; no students and no staff in quarantine. That’s less than 1 percent of the student body out for COVID-related reasons.

     There are also 80 PreK-12 students still participating in full online or hybrid learning. That’s about 8 percent of the total students throughout the district.

     “Please keep in mind that we will not be offering online learning in the fall; only in-person learning,” warned Jaeger.

     With Pfizer working on getting approval of their COVID-19 vaccine for those 12-15 years, Jaeger said residents can call 211 to find a vaccine site.