The Cullman City School System’s school nurses were recognized during Tuesday’s meeting for the hard work they have put in over the past year to keep students and staff members safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a year of sparsely attended meetings due to the pandemic, Tuesday night, the Cullman City School Board signaled a return to normalcy with the recognitions of the system’s teachers of the year and its school nurses. 

East Elementary School second grade teacher Blakeley Burns was named the system’s Elementary Teacher of the Year and Cullman Middle School band director Linda Bean was named the Secondary Teacher of the Year earlier this school year, and both were recognized and presented with certificates for the honor during Tuesday’s meeting. 

May 12 was National School Nurse Day, and while that should be a year-round event, the board wanted to bring in the system’s nurses for Tuesday’s meeting to be recognized for the work they have put in over the past year to make sure students, teachers and everyone else in the city’s schools were safe during the pandemic, said Cullman City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff.

The system’s nurses recognized during the meeting were Cullman City Primary School’s Kalysha Whittle, East Elementary School’s Amanda Baker, West Elementary School’s Dori Potter, West Elementary School’s Reeta Morrow, Cullman Middle School’s Shan Goodlett and Cullman High School’s Jennifer Shugarts.

Kallhoff thanked each nurse for the work they do for students every year, and especially for the work they have done during the challenging circumstances over the past year. 

“We appreciate it,” he said. “We appreciate what you do.”

Kallhoff also gave an update on the summer programs that the system will be offering in June and July.  

He said the system’s Summer Reading Program will be held at West Elementary School from June 21 through July 15, and will be targeting around 185 students from kindergarten to third grade based on reading assessment data. 

He said letters have been sent home to parents of those students to strongly encourage them to send their child to the program, and lunches will be served to students at no cost.

Cullman Middle School and Cullman High School will have two terms of summer school that will focus on core classes, with the first term taking place in June and the second taking place in July, Kallhoff said. 

The system’s Summer Feeding Program will also be returning on June 8, and will run every Tuesday until Aug. 3 — with the exception of July 6 for the week of Independence Day, Kallhoff said. 

He said seven days of breakfast and lunch meals will be offered at no charge for children 18 years old or younger each week, and the preliminary plans include drive-thru pickups from West Elementary and Cullman High School from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

The final details of the program will be released in the coming weeks, he said.