School starts soon, Pick Your Pirate

Pike County students have over a week before school starts back on Thursday, Aug. 8. Open House will be held at the middle school, high school and Ninth Grade Academy on Monday, Aug. 5 and Open House will be held at the primary and elementary schools on Tuesday, Aug. 6. As teachers prepare their classrooms to welcome students, members of the community are helping provide them with the supplies they need through the Pick Your Pirate program. The goal is to lessen the financial strain on teachers while still providing items needed for their students and classrooms. ’Our teachers work hard for very little money and they routinely dig into their own pockets to provide for their classrooms. This is one way the community can come together and ease their burdens some,’ said Angi Pilkenton who has organized the program to help teachers for several years now. ‘We are getting members of the community to sponsor a teacher and once they have chosen a teacher – or had one assigned if they prefer – then we send them that teacher’s wish list and they drop the supplies off at McLeRoy Realty. This program could not succeed without the support from the community and local business owners.’The items collected for local teachers are kept at the office until the week of Open House when they are all delivered to the teachers. To find out more about the project or how to help, go to facebook.com/PickYourPirate/. Anyone who wants to sponsor a teacher, can send an email to PickYourPirate@gmail.com.Students will get their first break of the school year Monday, Sept. 2 for Labor Day. Fall break is set for Friday, Oct. 4 through Friday, Oct. 11 with an early release planned for Thursday, Oct. 3. Students will be out for Thanksgiving from Friday, Nov. 22 to Friday, Nov. 29 and for Christmas from Friday, Dec. 20 to Monday, Jan. 6. They will get off Monday, Jan. 20 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Winter break is planned for Friday, Feb. 14 through Feb. 21 with an early release planned for Thursday, Feb. 13. Spring break will be Monday, April 6 through Tuesday, April 14. The last day of school is set for Friday, May 22.