On Thursday night, when it became clear that Newport Independent Schools would be closed for a fifth day, Principal Kyle Niederman went into a bit of a panic.
In a school district where 90 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, he knew the snow days meant many of his Newport Intermediate students would have gone all week without having had a nutritious meal, or maybe even any meal at all. A fifth day off would mean that some might also go hungry all weekend.
Niederman fired off an email to his teachers and staff, and on Friday morning nearly two dozen of them showed up at the school to trek across the city in the snow and biting cold, volunteering their time to knock on doors and deliver food to make sure their students were fed.
They delivered 66 Power Packs, bags of nutritious, nonperishable items provided by the Freestore Foodbank and normally distributed to a school's neediest students on Friday afternoons.
"We were concerned about our students and wanted to make sure we helped them the best we could," Niederman said. "They'll have food this weekend, and hopefully they'll have a good weekend."
Remember THESE are the people that Governor Scott Walker, and the Republican party, puts at the top of their enemies list.
I have known, and worked with, a lot of teachers in my time and I would say that the vast majority of them would not hesitate to do this as well.
They constantly come in to school when they are supposed to be off, buy supplies with their own money, tutor children after school for no compensation just to help them be successful, and fill in for busy parents when children are in crisis.
I am not a religious person but if I had it in my power to grant sainthood, I know dozens of teachers who would be at the top of my list.
