Cornell School Board; If numbers aren’t up, eSucceed’s on the chopping block

By Ginna Young

Cornell’s membership to the online virtual consortium known as eSucceed, may have reached the end of its lifespan. Superintendent Paul Schley reported on the low numbers of the virtual option July 24, during a regular board of education meeting.

Last year, there were only 87 students enrolled, so Cornell and a few other members of the consortium, have given notice that they will withdraw after this year, if enrollment numbers don’t increase.

“It worked really well during COVID, glad we had it, but right now…the kids can go anywhere,” said Schley. “Everyone’s got virtual options. You’re not going to compete with the big ones.”

Schley also reported that the building cleaning is going well, with touch-up stuff happening, in preparation for the start of school this month.

“Just little odds and ends,” he said.

The elementary is also waiting for ceiling tiles to come in that were back-ordered, since they’re replacing them throughout the building. The district ordered 22,000 tiles, because once the maintenance crews got to looking around, there were a lot of tiles in need of replacement.

In readiness for the new school year, the board approved the bread contract with Bimbo Bakeries and the milk contract with Wenger Distributing.