January 2022

Clay County’s best spellers competed this week with Mac Lunsford, eighth grader in the Corning School District winning 1st Place in the Clay County Spelling Bee held January 25 in the Rector High School library. There were nine contestants, three from each of the Clay County school districts, Corning, Piggott, and Rector. The top spellers are Winner/Champion - Mac Lunsford, Corning; Runner-Up - Charlie Haines, Corning; and 3rd Place - Benjamin Schimming, Rector. The event was sponsored by Centennial Bank. The winner received $100, runner-up was awarded $50, and third place received $25.

Children at Noah’s Ark PreSchool take care of birds during the winter using peanut butter, bird seed and toilet tissue rolls. .

It is no secret that education during a pandemic has been brutal. No one knows how to successfully navigate through sickness, quarantine, school closures, and online learning, but our educators in the Corning School District are certainly giving it all they have for our students. Although we’ve been bombarded with sickness and quarantine, I have seen a remarkable perseverance from all of our staff. I want to express my sincere appreciation to all who have helped us keep school open during the past few weeks. Even though we had to close for a few days, we have made the best of the situation. Our staff has been willing to help cover classes, cook lunch, sweep floors, drive buses, and basically anything we asked them to do while we were short-staffed. This is truly an amazing group of people to work with!

There are 50.7 million students in the United States public education system. 50 million children who will one day become our future voters, business owners, parents, zookeepers, doctors, inventors, police officers, neighbors. The kids in our schools will be the ones who are running our society. I know this is obvious, but I think it’s worth pointing out how critical the school experience is for kids, because the vast majority of us go through it, with the intention of having better childhoods and preparing to have successful futures.