A PROJECT OF RURAL SCHOOLS COLLABORATIVE

Cory Steiner, Hunter, ND

75-mile parade for 650 students

June 8, 2020 |
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We are asking rural communities to share how COVID-19 is impacting them and how teachers and teacher-leaders are adapting in the face of nationwide school closures. Read below for a great story from Cory Steiner of Hunter, ND. You can share yours here: http://bit.ly/iaartcovid

At Northern Cass School District (Hunter, ND), we are located in a cornfield and don't have a community as we serve multiple communities and have a significant portion of our enrollment come from outside the district. We continued to serve lunch but it required us to run six different routes which travel over 200 miles per day in different directions. We served 35 meals on day one and have served over 350 the past two weeks. We are a district of 650 learners. Because we don't have a community where our school is, we also 'held' a parade in all of our communities. The parade was over 75 miles long and took 4 hours. People lined the streets of our communities to waive to the caravan of educators which was 3 miles long at one point. Finally, we held a drive-in movie at our school. We hosted two showings of The Lion King and had 115 cars attend. We have found the little things go a long ways. It is necessary for us to rethink engagement and I'm proud of all the things we have done to keep us united.

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