Colegrove, Attalla City Schools get ready for start of 2022-23 school year

Hate to have to say it, kids, but you're about to have to put away your bathing suits and suntan lotion.

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After another summer of fun in the sun, it's time for students and teachers to start preparing for the 2022-23 school year — including those in the Attalla City Schools system, which starts back Aug. 11.

Attalla City Schools Superintendent Jeff Colegrove is excited to see a new school year get going, as he anticipates it being a good one despite some lingering concerns from the last couple of years.

"We are going to have an outstanding school year," Colegrove said. "Our administrators have worked really hard all summer to prepare for this school year. We have had teachers in and out all summer putting in extra work to ensure they are prepared for students to return.

"Our teachers and staff do such a great job and we know that our students will have dedicated people who care in their classrooms and schools," he said.

Regarding the work that the system workers put in over the summer, Colegrove went into further detail.

"Our staff has attended multiple professional development training sessions this summer, including Mastery Prep for ACT Prep (this program is available beginning at the middle school level through high school), the Alabama Association of School Resource Officers, Grade-Level Meetings, Preparing for System Level Vertical Alignment, Math training with AMSTI, ELA training, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling and Alakid," he said. "Our high school staff presented at the MEGA Conference in Mobile.

"We have worked this summer revisiting our security plans," he added. "This has been a busy summer for our teachers as staff as we work to minimize the learning loss that was experienced during the pandemic."

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Speaking of which, Colegrove also broached the topic of the coronavirus, which remains a threat even if it's not at the level it was in 2020 or 2021.

The superintendent said that he feels like his system is in a much-preferred place now compared to the last few years, but he also believes there's a chance the shadow of COVID-19 will never truly go away.

"We are definitely better right now than we have been at times over the past couple of years, but I don’t know that we will ever be 'back' from the coronavirus," Colegrove explained. "We continually monitor the numbers and follow guidance from the CDC and ADPH."

Because of the possibility that the coronavirus could become just another fact of life, if it hasn't already, Colegrove said it is of utmost importance to continue to stay as vigilant and diligent as possible.

"We certainly want our students to have a great experience in a safe environment," he said. "So the recent spike has all of us worried about what this will look like once school starts back.

"We will continue to do the things we’ve done in the past and take the necessary precautions to offer as safe a learning environment as possible," he continued. "The safety of our students and staff is paramount and we will do everything we can to ensure their safety."

The coronavirus isn't the only issue facing Attalla City Schools. Supply-chain problems have been plaguing society since the pandemic was at its height and continue to linger to this day.

The Russia-Ukraine war and a COVID lockdown in China are the latest contributors to the issue, meaning consumer goods, food, commodities, metals, chemicals and a number of other things will continue to be harder to come by than usual.

It's something that has hit home for Colegrove, as his system has suffered along with so many others.

"We experienced some supply-chain issues last year," he said. "Not only was food supply impacted, we also experienced issues with lunchroom supplies in general."

The bad news is, it's still something Attalla will have to deal with.

"We are anticipating those issues to continue," Colegrove said. "Hopefully, we will be able to get disposable plates as soon as possible. We have already been informed from our bread distributor that it will be difficult for them to fulfill the USDA wheat requirement; however, they will substitute with enriched white. We anticipate more waivers from the USDA and ALSDE as the supply chain continues to be disrupted.

"Due to the statewide disruption of grocery deliveries last year, our supplier has worked hard this summer to ensure we all have groceries on time," he said. "School systems (began) receiving first-of-year groceries (the week of July 18-22)."

Still, Colegrove is highly optimistic and trusts the people in his system. He couldn't praise enough those who work at Attalla Elementary, Etowah Middle and Etowah High schools in order to provide a safe, quality education for the 1,620 students in the system.

". ..We are looking forward to having all of our teachers, staff and students back on campus," he said. "We have really good people who care, and those people make it enjoyable to come to work every day."

J.J. Hicks is a news reporter at The Gadsden Times. He can be reached at jhicks1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Attalla Superintendent Colegrove dishes on upcoming school year