Linda Tutt High School in Sanger made national news this week by offering help, agency and dignity to its students. The small alternative campus opened a grocery store in one of its classrooms where students can shop for food, toiletries and household goods. And they pay with learning.
The project was the brainchild of Paul Juarez, executive director of First Refuge Ministries, which operates food pantries and health services in the Denton area. First Refuge used grant money from Texas Health Resources to establish the store and enlist the help of the Albertsons grocery chain.
Tutt Principal Anthony Love said 43% of students in Sanger ISD are economically disadvantaged and 3.6% are homeless. Though aimed at helping those families, the store is open to any student in the district. No cash changes hands. Students pay with points, which are awarded for good grades, good deeds, perfect attendance, or teachers-aide type jobs around campus.
McKinney elementary school closes after COVID-19 sidelines one-third of the staff
Reuben Johnson Elementary will have fully virtual instruction until Jan. 5 of next year.
A McKinney water tower rises in the background over a sea of suburban rooftops of subdivisions in McKinney. The students of Reuben Johnson Elementary School will be learning from home for the rest of the year with 1/3 of the school s staff sidelined by COVID-19.(Louis DeLuca - Staff Photographer)
McKinney ISD’s Reuben Johnson Elementary School is pivoting to fully virtual instruction in response to rising cases of COVID-19.
The school made the switch after more than one-third of its teachers and staff tested positive, were presumed positive, or were quarantined due to COVID-19, leaving the school’s overall staff depleted, according to an announcement from the district.