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Vermilion Parish Public Schools will be letting its hybrid students return to campus, starting next week, announced school superintendent Tommy Byler.
Byler gave the school district’s game-plan to transition back into five-day a week attendance, which is how it was before COVID-19.
In a six-minute video, Byler informed parents and students the transition from a hybrid schedule to a regular schedule would begin next week on Nov. 2.
For the last two months, public school students have been attending school every other day. Some would attend on Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday. Others would go Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday.
Next week, high schools and middle schools will slowly be transitioning back to a five-day a week schedule. Byler warned parents and students the transition would not be easy, and there will be hiccups along the way.
“We need everyone to be patient,” said Byler.
Students will still need to wear a mask and practice social distancing.
Byler is leaving it up to each school s on how they want to handle their students’ return.
The administrators from each high school will sit with the middle school administrators in their community and develop a plan.
Example: Abbeville High’s administrators will meet with J.H. Williams Middle School administrators to develop a plan on how to bring back the students.
Byler said some schools might welcome back one grade on a specific day and another grade the next day. Other schools may wait until Nov. 9 and welcome everyone back.
School administrators have to figure out bus routes since the school bus can only be 75 percent full or 45 students per bus. Byler said the school system could not afford to have any bus drivers get COVID-19 because of the shortage of substitute bus drivers.
“The first few days may have delays with bus routes,” Byler said. “There is no way to figure out bus routes and bus numbers until we figure out who is riding the bus.”

This current presidential race feels all so familiar. Like the 2016 race, the latest polls show Donald Trump significantly behind his Democratic opponent. Once again, the media is confidently predicting his demise and delighting in their dream of an upcoming Democratic victory.
The Democratic presidential candidate has a huge financial advantage in the final stage of the campaign. In 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approximately twice the campaign funds of Donald Trump. In this race, Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has an extra $180 million in his campaign coffers. This will give him a tremendous boost in the final appeal to undecided voters in the battleground states.
While Donald Trump is creating enthusiasm and excitement with large crowds at rallies, the Democratic presidential candidate is drawing flies and has no energy. Hillary had smaller crowds than Donald Trump, but Biden only draws a handful of people in socially distant circles.
There are nagging questions about the health of the Democratic presidential candidate. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had frequent coughing fits and seemed quite sick on several occasions. In this race, Joe Biden has made memorable errors during speeches and interviews, leading some health experts to question his mental competence.
In the final days of the 2016 race, mysterious emails surfaced to cast doubt on the veracity of Hillary Clinton. After the FBI refused to charge her for the unforgivable handling of 30,000+ emails sent from an unsafe home-based computer, the laptop of her assistant’s husband, Anthony Weiner, was discovered with even more emails to process. They were quickly reviewed, and no charges were issued, but the episode reminded Americans of Hillary’s previous scandal.
In the homestretch of this campaign, the laptop of Hunter Biden, the former Vice President’s son, was discovered at a Delaware computer repair shop. It contained thousands of emails linking Joe Biden to corrupt business dealings in China and Ukraine. It solidified the public’s impression of Joe Biden as a lying, crooked politician.
In this race, as in 2016, Trump’s opponents have thrown everything possible against him, hoping enough will stick to cause his downfall. Both Clinton and Biden enjoyed the enthusiastic support of a biased national media, which is virulently anti-Trump with no objectivity or fairness in their reporting.
Yes, the 2020 presidential race has striking similarities with the 2016 election. The key difference is former candidate Donald Trump is now President of the United States. He has a four-year record of success to showcase to the American electorate.
His 2016 opponent was a tired political hack. Hillary Clinton spent decades aspiring to become President, finally winning the Democratic Party nomination in a battle with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The same is true of Trump’s 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, who also bested Sanders in a nomination contest. However, Biden has been in the Washington D.C. swamp for even longer than Clinton.
Biden’s political career began in 1970 with a council district victory in Delaware and then he moved into the nation’s capital with a surprising U.S. Senate victory in 1972. Sadly, for the American people, and especially for the voters of Delaware, Biden never left.
In this race, Biden is offering an array of promises to the American people, but never accomplished any of them during his long five-decade career. In contrast, President Donald Trump fulfilled his campaign promises to the American people. He is the antithesis of Joe Biden, an outsider who is a man of action. Joe Biden is all talk, no action. What he did accomplish, such as the crime bill of 1994, has had devastating results for the country.
The record shows that Biden and his family have enriched themselves during “public service,” while President Trump and his family have lost billions of dollars during the past four years. While Biden and his family have made millions of dollars in the last four years, Trump is the first President since John F. Kennedy to refuse his salary while in office.
President Trump has donated his salary to worthy government agencies such as the National Park Service, the Veterans Administration, and the Small Business Administration. This selfless act has not received enough attention, but it shows the character of President Trump. He is suffering all this media, Democratic Party and Deep State abuse, for no financial compensation, to strictly benefit the American people.
With ten days before the election, President Trump is behind by 8.1 percent in the Real Clear Politics average of polls. At this point in 2016, Hillary Clinton was only 3.8 percent ahead of Trump. If President Trump finds a way to win again, it will be even more of an upset than it was four years ago.
The odds are so stacked against him, that famed pollster Frank Luntz said, “If the numbers turn out to be wrong. If Donald Trump is right and these pollsters are wrong about this race, then people like me are going to have to find a new profession.”
It would be a tremendous benefit for the nation if these biased pollsters who use flawed methodology, skewed questioning and unfair sampling were wrong and had to vacate their profession. More importantly, the nation needs another four years of Donald Trump as President. The stakes of this election are immense, and the country cannot risk giving the presidency to a compromised, incompetent, and dangerously liberal career politician like Joe Biden.
For the benefit of our country, it is imperative that the American people prove the so-called experts wrong again. It would be a wonderful déjà vu for the United States of America. The alternative is both alarming and perilous and would be a nightmare for the country.
In this election, the contrast is stark, and the implications are massive. This incredibly important choice rests in the hands of the American people. Let us pray they make the only rational decision, the re-election of President Donald Trump.

ST. LANDRY PARISH – At approximately 8:45 p.m. on October 09, 2020, Troopers from Louisiana State Police Troop I were notified of a single-vehicle crash on LA Highway 749 near Hanger Road in St. Landry Parish.
The crash ultimately took the life of 67-year-old Matthew Washington of Opelousas.
The initial investigation by State Police revealed that the crash occurred as Washington was driving a 2014 GMC Sierra southbound on LA 749. For unknown reasons, his vehicle ran into a tree which had fallen across the roadway.
Washington was restrained at the time of the crash. He was transported by private means to a local hospital with moderate injuries. On October 28th, the investigating troopers were notified that Washington succumbed to his injuries on October 15th. Impairment is unknown and this crash remains under investigation.
Troop I has investigated 49 fatal crashes resulting in 54 deaths in 2020.

EUNICE — Eunice High School is closed for cleaning after five staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
Principal Mitchell Fontenot, in a letter to parents, stated the campus closed at the end of the day Monday “out of an abundance of caution to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all members of the community and the school.”
Instruction will be delivered remotely beginning Tuesday and in-person learning is scheduled to resume on Nov. 4, he stated.
The in-person restart date is “contingent on what the data tells us about the number of COVID-19 cases in the Eunice area,” he stated.
Arrangements are being made by the Child Nutrition Department to provide grab and go meals for EHS students at the Central Middle School campus, he stated.
“We will be closely monitoring this situation and following all directions provided by the Louisiana Department of Health. Please note that while we have an obligation to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of all members of our community, we also have an obligation to protect the privacy of individuals affected by this virus,” he stated.
Fontenot said only close contacts are required to be quarantined.
“The Center for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) defines a close contact as an individual who was within six feet of a positive case of COVID-19 for a duration of longer than 15 consecutive minutes, he stated.
“Unless an individual has been personally contacted by the Department of Health or the school nurse we can reasonably assure you that you have not been identified as a close contact of a positive case. The only individuals who need to quarantine are those who have been personally contacted by the Department of Health or the school nurse,” he stated.
Fontenot stated, “If you are symptomatic please stay home and contact your medical provider immediately. If your child receives a positive COVID-19 result please contact Nurse Callie Schouest at 337-457-5895 or Nurse Sylvia Brown at 337-948-3646. Your cooperation with sharing information with our nurses and reporting any positive cases of COVID-19 within your family or close contacts is very important.”
Fontenot added, “It is important to note that there is no evidence that schools in the Eunice area have had an increase in positive cases, nor is there any indication that higher transmission rates in these neighborhoods are due to school buildings being open. The step to close school buildings is one of many steps being taken to help reduce transmission in the Eunice area.”
The Louisiana National Guard and Office of Public Health will be providing COVID-19 testing from 8 a.m. ot 3 p.m. Friday at the Eunice High School parking lot.
Staff members at Eunice Career and Technical Education Center will report to work to deliver lessons virtually, he stated.
All other schools in the Eunice area will remain open at this time, he stated.