Schools return students’ property, ready for end of instruction year
As local school districts wind down the instruction year, school officials are making arrangements for students to retrieve their personal belongings from their lockers and classrooms, return school property and pay fines.
Adriane Barnes, Hot Springs School District communications and public relations coordinator, said principals at each elementary school coordinated plans with parents to pick up personal belongings that are specific to each school.
Each elementary school coordinated separately because the needs of each facility are quite different, especially for two schools that are moving to different buildings, she said.
Oaklawn Visual & Performing Arts Magnet School completed their pick-up last week, as staff members are moving to the new Main Street location. Gardner STEM is finishing up this week, allowing supplies to be picked up through Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. Staff members at Gardner will begin moving to Oaklawn later in May, she said.
“Park Magnet has scheduled a pick-up each day this week for students in alphabetical order by last name. Langston Elementary Leadership Academy is also offering their pick-up effort this week through the final week of school on Mondays-Tuesdays only, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” Barnes said.
Students in grades 7-8 at the Hot Springs Junior Academy did not have items stored in lockers, she said. Teachers contacted students individually to arrange for the pick-up of personal belongings left in classrooms. HSJA staff teams are now actively moving to the new three-story complex on Emory Street.
Hot Springs World Class High School is open through the main entrance to students in grades 9-12 to pick up items from lockers
anytime from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through the final week of school, Barnes said.
“Lockers have been cleaned out, and items are ready for students to collect. For belongings remaining in classrooms at the high school, students should request those by emailing teachers.”
Donald Westerman, Lake Hamilton High School principal, said in a video posted on the district’s Facebook page Tuesday morning that “lots of you” had inquired about cleaning out lockers, picking up yearbooks and returning textbooks and Chromebooks.
Westerman said the school hosted a drive-thru event with seniors only on Tuesday. During the event, seniors were allowed to pick up their yearbooks, awards and personal items left in their lockers.
He said the seniors would be able to pick up graduation supplies that remain unclaimed, and a “Home of Lake Hamilton Class of 2020 Graduate” yard sign.
“They will also be dropping off textbooks, electronic devices and any school-issued uniforms or equipment. We will be collecting fees that are still out,” such as lunches, Westerman said in the video.
He said sophomores and juniors who have personal items in their lockers and want to pick up their yearbook or who want to return their books, Chromebooks, calculators or uniforms can do so at drive-thru events that coordinate with the letters of their last names.
Sophomores and juniors with last names that begin with the letters A through G can pick up and drop off on Tuesday; H through M can pick up and drop off on Wednesday, May 20; and N through Z can pick up and drop off on Thursday, May 21, Westerman said.
Any students who have lunch charges or owe for a lost book are asked to bring a cashier’s check or exact change to the drive-thru.
Dana Janush, Mountain Pine School District director of federal programs and public relations, said the school does have many lockers and personal items were taken home a while ago.
Nancy Anderson, Cutter Morning Star School District superintendent, said the district had already taken care of a lot of the students’ personal items at the elementary school. The teachers bagged the belongings and sent them home with the alternative methods of instruction packets last week.
“We put them all outside on a pretty day and parents came by and picked them up. We had their stuff with their names on them,” she said.
The school will be doing a drop-off this week and next for students to bring back any school-owned items that they may have such as Chromebooks, library books, and sports uniforms, Anderson said.