In these eerie times of COVID-19 and virtual rather than face-to-face learning and meetings, Hopkins Board of Education members Monday evening learned the local district is soldiering on to meet its mission.

Superintendent Gary Wood told the board the local school system has been serving 3,800 meals per week to more than 200 students in the absence of the regular breakfast and lunch programs.

Wood said Hopkins Elementary has been seeing a 97 percent participation rate in the on-line learning program. Figures for the middle school range from 81% to 86% and at Sycamore it ranges from 86% to 98%.

“These numbers, I believe, are fairly strong,” the superintendent said.

Wood, however, said it is highly unlikely there will be traditional graduation exercises in June and some are holding out hopes for July or August.

“We just want to find an opportunity to honor these (graduating) students,” he told the board.

The superintendent also said he has been meeting with members of the administrative team to begin preparing for a challenging budget year in 2020-21 because of the drop in revenue as a result of the Coronavirus.

“We need to look into ways to reduce costs for next year with the potential of cuts to the foundation allowance from the state,” he said.