Helper Middle School is being highlighted on this week’s Carbon School District weekly update and Castle Country Radio was able to speak over the telephone with Principal Robert Bradley about the end of school procedures, eighth-grade tea ceremony and new construction.

Beginning on May 12 students will be asked to sign up for a time slot to come into the school to empty lockers and return Chromebooks. “Plans for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, slots for our parents and students to be able to sign up. We would like the student to come in get the materials out of their lockers, turn in any library books, turn in their Chromebooks. Our sixth and seventh graders are going to walk out with a packet that has any certificates or awards or things like that they have earned throughout the year,” stated Principal Bradley. Students will also walk out with a seed packet donated by Sutherlands. The school is hosting a friendly competition among students to grow a plant over the summer and see who grows the biggest by the time school starts again in August.

Every year the school hosts an Eighth Grade Tea to commemorate students transitioning to high school. “The way we have recognized in prior years, ninth-graders and now eighth-graders heading off to the high school, being that its such a small school we get to do this kind of stuff. So we can’t do it in person this year so we got a virtual presentation and a drive-by celebration,” explained Principal Bradley. The school hopes that this will provide students with recognition and closure as they end their 2019-2020 school year. The school has all the details on how the drive-by celebration will be conducted on the school’s Facebook page.

New construction will soon begin on the school over that summer. “Now a lot of the details of that are still in the works. There’s some precursory work that needs to be done before they get to some of the internal constructions but some of the stuff that is in the works right now is structural integrity upgrades, and sadly you’re not going to be able to see much of that because its all contained within the roof and the flooring. So that plan is to start that this summer,” said Principal Bradley. Electrical engineers have already been in the school to see that they have adequate electricity to upgrade the heating and cooling system.