Schools will not reopen this spring

HARTINGTON — All Nebraska schools have been ordered to keep their doors shut for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

Gov. Pete Ricketts made the announcement last week that all Nebraska schools remain closed through May 31.

“Because of this (mandate) Hartington-Newcastle Public Schools will now extend our closure to the scheduled end of the school year,” HNS Supt. A.J. Johsnon said.

Cedar Catholic-Holy Trinity Principal Chris Uttecht said the local Catholic schools will continue to operate “in a remote learning environment through the end of the school year.” 

Johnson said teachers will continue to send out “learning opportunities to our students electronically and through packets.”

Johnson also said the meal service will continue through the remainder of the scheduled school year. Anyone age 1-18 residing in the Hartington-Newcastle School District is eligible for the free meals, regardless of which school they attend.

Students from all local schools were given instructions as to how and when they can clean out their desks and school lockers.

The state mandate also cancels plans for local graduation ceremonies.

“The newly issued Directed Health Measures prevent Cedar Catholic from holding any type of graduation ceremony on the originally scheduled date of May 9,” Uttecht said. “Because high school graduation is an important milestone in our students’ academic careers, we will be rescheduling graduation to a date later this summer.”

Johnson said the HNS administration is also working on alternate plans for a graduation ceremony during the mid to late part of summer.

“We want to do our very best to give the seniors a ceremony,” he said, adding that the school will put out information about graduation dates in the near future so people can begin to make plans.