Back to School at SCSD#2

All the schools, K-12 in SCSD#2 will be going back to school on Tuesday, August 30. Scott Stults, superintendent of SCSD #2 schools talked about the upcoming 2022 school year.

When asked about COVID-19, which has been an issue in the schools for the past two years, he said, “I think Covid is here to stay, we will continue to reinforce good hygiene. If you are sick, stay home. We have a COVID-19 plan, we will continue to work closely with Dr. Hunter, Dr. Widener and public health. We work hand and hand with them, whether it is Covid or the flu or other illness and accidents.”

With school shootings in the news lately, Stults discussed the training and the steps that SCSD#2 is taking to insure that the students and teachers are safe.

He talked about the ALICE active shooter drills, that are incorporated into the school year. ALICE is an acronym which means Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.

He said there are around 3700 students enrolled, which is an increase over the 2021 year. He said the main reason is the increase in the number of people moving into the Sheridan area. He felt that several families moved in over the summer and enrolled the kids in school this fall.

He added that the SHS graduation rate in 2021 was 88%. “Our goal is 100%,” Stults said. “We want every kid to be able to graduate. It is a goal of ours to work toward that 100% mark, we are helping to provide more relevance and help our kids to see the purpose and reason why the High School diploma is so unbelievably important.”

He added the school’s goal is not to have every child attend a college or university. The school knows that a trade school or a tech school or a community college course is absolutely what our community needs. Stults added that businesses in the Sheridan community are desperately looking for employees that don’t need a college degree, they may just need a high school diploma.

He said that Sheridan High School wants to show through work study and internships what job opportunities are available. “We want them to get exposure to what they might want to do, so they have some idea or plan about what they want to do once they leave high school. We want to provide multiple opportunities for our kids. They might not know what they want to do but we want to provide opportunities for them to see what is out there.”

He added that nearly all employers want workers to have at least a high school diploma when they are looking to hire.

Stults talked about what the school is doing to prepare students for the work world as well as for college.

The teacher shortage is another area that SCSD#2 is concerned about. Stults said this year they are blessed with the quality of the staff at SCSD #2 but added that the pool of qualified applicants was smaller than in past years. He felt one reason was that more teachers were leaving the profession, and less graduates are taking up teaching.

He also added that he was excited to get back to school this year, and it was “Always great when the kids come back.”

The first day of school is Tuesday, August 30.