Dr. Roach’s update on Olney ISD and COVID-19
One of the greatest problems currently in the midst of this pandemic is our schools, both locally and nationally.
We were able to catch up with the Superintendent of Olney ISD, Dr. Roach--who is trying to answer as many questions as possible amongst this crisis. This is such a tragic time for the students at both Newcastle and Olney, especially for the seniors who do not know whether or not their activities will be able to continue at a later date.
“We have no clue where this is going. We hope for the best but are planning for the worst,” Dr. Roach stated. “We are fortunate because we have a really, really good staff and it wouldn’t take us a day to get back in the swing of things here if we could get the kids back. We just hope and pray that we can get them back soon,” Dr. Roach added. Roach says that we all need to be good citizens during this time, follow the rules and abide by the CDC, as well as all of our local and state officials. Roach hopes that while we are all sheltering in place, that this sends a good message to all of the students in Olney ISD how to be good citizens for the future.
Roach was asked about impending UIL events coming up, whether or not these could potentially take place. “Hopefully we can get back and do some compressed seasons with track, baseball, softball and one act play is still hanging out there,” Roach said. “The saddest thing about this is that we had a lot of students and teachers that we really poised to do some really neat things with all of this.” Noting that one act play was in a primed position, given that they were peaking at just the right time. With baseball not being able to really get their feet up off the ground, UIL academics looked very strong and hopefully some of those events will continue.
Athletics is currently not practicing under UIL rules, but we begin again immediately if and when students return to the classroom. Roach also says that even though athletics cannot practice, coaches are sending home packets with drills that can do, stating that he does know for a fact that this has many effective already for several students.
Dr. Roach said that he and his staff have had meetings about prom and graduation. “If there is anyway to get these kids their prom, we want to do it. It might not be exactly how we had planned but if there is a way for them to have commencement exercises, we want to have them for these seniors.”
Dr. Roach notes that he knows that this pandemic will only make Olney and Olney ISD stronger. “I know we are just going to get better from this. You never learn anything if something doesn’t break down and this is a pretty big break down here so maybe our learning curve will really enhance and make us all better.”