Peasant talks Partnership School, coronavirus plans at Kiwanis
The Starkville Kiwanis Club heard an update on the Partnership Middle School at its meeting Tuesday.
Peasant gave the club an update on the new school, which will see its first students this year. The $32 million facility opened its doors last week, after more than three years under construction. The School will serve the district’s seventh and eighth graders, and will also serve as a lab for the Mississippi State University Department of Education.
“It is an amazing facility in itself,” Peasant said. “It’s really amazing what our children will experience in this 21st century learning environment.”
Peasant also discussed the school’s role in training new educators, with classroom pods designed around the concept. MSU education students will be able to observe and listen to classrooms while not disturbing the students.
“They are training future teachers, so ed majors will have the opportunity to observe teachers in a school designed around the concept,” Peasant said. “This way, they’ll see firsthand all of the good, the bad and the ugly that goes on in the school.”
Peasant said he believed the school would lead to better
trained teachers, who had more real life experience by the time they entered the classroom themselves.
The interior of the school is complete, with work still underway around the school site, including the installation of a garden and other facilities from a $900,000 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation grant.
He said the construction of the grant facilities would continue into the school year, but would be done in such a way that it would not disrupt instruction at the school.
Peasant also discussed the district’s response to COVID-19, including the announcement earlier this month that the district’s first day would be pushed back to Aug. 24.
“We decided to give our teachers a little more time to prepare, so we pushed it back to Aug. 24,” Peasant said.
Teachers will return to work on Aug. 17. The district said in a statement that the main reason for the start of school being pushed back was to prepare for a larger-thananticipated number of students choosing to receive virtual instruction.
He said the district was also working to address internet access issues in response to the increase in virtual learning. He said approximately 60 percent of lower grades and 45 percent of upper grades would start the year in a traditional classroom environment.
“We have some challenges in our community and in our county with internet access,” Peasant said. “It’s challenging, but we have to do some things to mitigate that.”
The district also plans to purchase more technology for students in response to the pandemic.