Liz and Katie crunched the numbers. There are more than 800 licensed child care programs in the disaster relief area. That puts us at 25 counties, 28 school districts, 459 local public schools, 24 public charter schools, 14 community colleges, more than 800 licensed child care programs, and the Qualla Boundary.
Alli continues to update our article about closures at schools and community colleges.
Emily is in Haywood, and she will be in Henderson and Rutherford next week. Caroline is headed to Polk and Rutherford. Ben will be in Ashe, Watauga, and Caldwell. I plan to focus on Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey. We’ve reached out to Kristen Blair, and she is working on a story about the impact on charter schools. Reach out with information or anything we are missing at mrash at ednc.org. The more communication the better we can focus our reporting.
The N.C. State Board of Education is meeting today, and Superintendent Truitt will be presenting her request for support and relief. Deputy Superintendent Jeremy Gibbs has been on the ground in western North Carolina all week meeting with superintendents and visiting schools with his team of regional managers also on the road and providing strategic communications support — like getting master lists of students delivered to districts. A special shout out to DPI’s Stephanie Dischiavi who is leading the way in some of the hardest hit counties.
Educator Ryan Mitchell in Henderson County is serving as a special correspondent for EdNC during recovery. Don’t miss his beautiful feature about his first-hand experience of the storm. Thankful for the leadership of all of our educators across the ed continuum.
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