Another successful school year has come to an end for Carbon School District and throughout the year a weekly update has been shared on Castle Country Radio. This was an opportunity for school officials to inform the public of their activities and events that were taking place at their schools. The updates were started with Superintendent Lance Hatch welcoming students back to school in August so it is only fitting that he returned to the radio station to close out the updates as well.

“Well, I think I’ve told a lot of people that I believe this is the hardest school year public education has ever seen. The challenges that we faced are greater than any challenges every presented in public education before in the United States. The response though has been incredible and our community has really rallied and when we made the commitment that we were going to have kids in school the response from parents and from the community was spot on everybody just supported that,” stated Superintendent Hatch. The district is just so proud of the educators for their resilience in working through all of the craziness that has taken place this school year.

A lot of educators over the last few weeks have felt that end of the school testing will show huge improvements across the board. “You know not only did the students get to be in school with their teachers and their peers – which by itself is a great thing. But we are seeing in some areas just outstanding growth for example in our elementary school our goal this year; you know we started out three years ago with only 20 some percent of our students reading at the level they should be at the end of the year and we were hoping to get above 50 percent this year because we’ve grown over the last couple of years and we met that goal as a district, we ended up with about 55 percent and that’s just incredible growth,” said Superintendent Hatch. This is due to all the educators’ hard work they have put into this school year and helping each of their students to improve their reading skills throughout the year.

Hatch is very pleased with the construction that is taking place at Helper Middle and Carbon High Schools. “You know we’re actually getting a new school at Helper Middle which is not what, we promised a renovation project and things worked out so well, the economy was such at the time of the bids and everything that we’re squeezing out every possible benefit out of the funds that were provided to us by the community – just another big shout out to the community for approving that bond,” stated Superintendent Hatch. Carbon High is going through a major facelift this summer with new interior paint and windows plus the new addition of office and classroom space.

This is Superintendent Hatch’s last Castle Country Focus interview because he has taken a position in Iron County.  “We lived down there for a while and liked it and we’re looking forward to going back. But I tell you we’re going to miss a lot about Carbon County, I love Carbon County, I love the people. The educators I have been able to work with, this is a great place to be. It’s a great place to raise a family. It’s definitely bittersweet, it’s a great opportunity for me but sure going to miss everything about Carbon County,” said Superintendent Hatch. He will begin his new duties as Iron County’s Superintendent on July 1.