With public schools across the state closing Monday for at least two weeks in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Lenoir County Public Schools is pushing out to its students and parents a blend of traditional and digital learning opportunities to help keep the focus on schoolwork while classes are suspended.

School buildings will be open from 2-5:30 p.m. Monday for students and parents to retrieve personal items and school-issued iPads not taken home Friday and to pick up learning packets and information on digital access that are the foundation of this effort to keep students engaged while schools are closed.

These blended learning opportunities will provide students with a combination of online and traditional print-version supplemental resources. All K-12 students in Lenoir County Public Schools have and regularly use iPads assigned to them and are familiar with the learning management systems that allow teachers to share and receive assignments.

“These learning opportunities will not serve as direct instruction. There is no substitute for the teacher in the classroom. But they will keep students in the student mindset while they are not in school,” Superintendent Brent Williams said.

Supplemented learning packages will be provided to students without reliable internet connection. With iPads. those students can also work offline on assignments. Two regional internet providers – Suddenlink and Spectrum – are offering free broadband service to qualifying households during this coronavirus emergency and LCPS families will be made aware of those options.

Also Monday afternoon, students are encouraged to check out up to five books from their school’s media center. All LCPS students also have access to online resources at Neuse Regional Library by using their Student ID as the library card number and the last four digits of the Student ID number as the pin.

To help meet the nutritional needs of students, LCPS plans to open five feeding sites Tuesday for “grab-and-go” lunches for youth 18 and younger. Cafeterias will open from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at South Lenoir High School, Kinston High School, North Lenoir High School, E.B. Frink Middle School and Southeast Elementary School. There will be no dining on site.

LCPS has cancelled or postponed all district and school-based events scheduled for March, as well as the Spring Special Olympics to be held in April. In accordance with a directive from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, all sports competitions for high schools and middle schools are cancelled through April 6.