Pine Valley Superintendent Bryna Booth reads a book to elementary school students. Submitted Photo

SOUTH DAYTON — Students and families in the Pine Valley Central School District remain engaged and connected with the school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In just a few short days, administrators, faculty, staff, and union leaders coordinated a district-wide response to the recent school closures that included daily food and learning opportunity deliveries, online instructional videos, read-aloud videos, mindful moments, and continuing community engagement initiatives.

“Together we will handle this pandemic with grace, love, mutual respect, and flexibility. Our mantra for every day is to take care of our students, take care of our families, and take care of our team,” said Superintendent Bryna Booth. “Everything we’ve done and will continue to do during this pandemic is to make sure everyone in our Panther family is safe, financially stable, supported, and loved.”

Pine Valley’s response to COVID-19 and the state-wide school closures began with a community briefing video on the district’s website and social media platforms. Information was also distributed through parent broadcasts and mailed letters. This was followed by a community needs survey and meetings with various stakeholder groups that helped district leaders create efficient and feasible plans.

Daily deliveries of breakfast and lunch, instructional materials, and important information began on Wednesday, March 18. The district raced to organize and coordinate the deliveries to make sure every family received packages that met their children’s educational needs.

Pine Valley school district workers put fun and educational messages on the food bags distributed to students. Submitted Photo

The district will continue this initiative throughout the closure. The South Dayton Supermarket also helped out by donating bags to package the district’s deliveries.

Pine Valley chose a delivery distribution system in an effort to ease the burden on families during the school closures. The district wanted to be able to regularly connect with families and allow students to see friendly faces, while also addressing any transportation limitations families may have. Each day, the delivery packages are decorated with uplifting messages and school spirit to help lift spirits during this uncertain time. All staff members have contributed to this effort, including bus drivers decorating buses and teacher’s aides creating special birthday packages to be delivered.

“Although coordinating the logistics of our new delivery system was quite a challenge, its all worth it to be able to see our students’ smiles when we walk up to their door,” said Business Administrator Jamie Rodgers. “We’re all in this together and at Pine Valley, we are all a family, so we are going to help out wherever we can.”

Pine Valley recognizes that the recent school closures are just as hard on its parents as it is on its students. The district recently launched a series of Panther Progress instructional videos to help parents learn simple teaching techniques that work with students of all ages. The goal is to support families with simple educational activities to use at home without causing more undue stress.

In addition to the Panther Progress instructional videos, Pine Valley is releasing a series of videos for students that feature faculty and staff reading books. This allows students another chance to see some of their favorite faces from school and gives students another opportunity to consume educational content from home.

Both video series can be found on the district’s website, www.pval.org, Facebook and Twitter pages.

“Our district’s new structure for education must be unique to Pine Valley and the needs of our families. We have worked to systematically balance digital learning opportunities with a paper-based, personal approach in order to ensure that every child in every home is engaged,” said Director of Curriculum and Instructional Technology Carrie Davenport. “We hope to utilize our social media platforms to maintain connections in addition to providing learning opportunities. We have to keep the human side of learning alive for our staff and families. “

For more information about Pine Valley Central School District’s response to COVID-19 or the recent school closures, please contact Booth at 988-3293, follow her on Twitter @brybooth, or email at bbooth@pval.org.