The Pleasant Valley School District will receive a $15,000 No Kid Hungry grant through Share Our Strength, a nonprofit organization based in Washington D.C. The announcement came at the Pleasant Valley School Board meeting Thursday night.

Susan Mowrer Benda, director of Curriculum and Instruction, said the funds will be used for the free meals for the school children working from home, as well as to purchase more personal protective equipment for the food service workers and to cover the cost of no-touch point-of-sale pads in the district’s cafeterias.

“We were very excited to receive those funds,” she said.

In other business, Julie Harris, the director of Special Education, said she has created a page on the district’s website titled Mental Health Resources. It specifically addresses suicide prevention.

“I’m pretty excited about it, so that the community has some resources that they can easily access if need be,” she said.

To access the page, hover over the Community tab and select Mental Health Resources from the list. On the left-hand side, click on Suicide Prevention. A list of resources will drop down about suicide prevention and other topics for parents and teens. Harris said she plans to continue to update the resources.

One of the provided links is for a free webinar on Nov. 21 for the International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. The event is for people who have experienced the loss of someone through suicide or anyone who has been affected by suicide. A link to the webinar is available on the page.

Before the meeting ended, school board director Laura Jecker said parents whose children are in the cyber academy asked her if their children will be further ahead than the children in the hybrid program. She said they are concerned that if their children are ahead of the others, the transition will not be difficult.

Superintendent Lee Lesisko said that yes, the children in the cyber academy do tend to be further ahead, because they are working at their own pace. In the classroom, a teacher has to slow down at times to make sure everyone understands.

“We would like the kids to stay in cyber until the end of the quarter,” Lesisko said. “That way, they start fresh wherever the other kids are.”

He explained that if a child returns at the beginning of a new quarter, then he or she will start at about the same point as the rest of the class.

In October, the district’s hybrid program actually had 26 students leave for other programs, according to the enrollment report in November. Similarly, the number of students originally listed as being educated out of the school district dropped by 33 students. Increases in students were made with 10 more added to the district’s cyber academy, 34 in other cyber charter schools, two more in private schools, and four moving to home schooling. There are now 789 students in the PVCA, 707 students in other cyber charter schools, 189 out of district, 120 in private schools, and 121 in homeschool.