West Plains, MO – The West Plains School District recently decided to change the location of their annual Homecoming Parade. This change had upset and disappointed many members of the community. The Homecoming Parade has been a large part of autumn tradition in West Plains as the parade would head down Main Street and around the Square.
Superintendent of West Plains Schools, Dr. Lori Wilson, has released a statement to parents and the community on these changes:
Dear Zizzer Families,
As a follow-up to the homecoming email sent to our parents yesterday, here are some additional updates and further explanations. I apologize for not sharing this information yesterday.
Homecoming week is a time for faculty, students, and alumni to gather and reminisce. Our district believes in tradition, and we want our students to enjoy the parade with their classmates. We understand changing the parade route is new and different. The decision was not taken lightly and was made for several factors, the most critical factor being the safety of our students.
Our high school students have been allowed to leave campus to attend the parade and return to school for several years. We have discovered over the years that not many students attend the parade; many students instead leave for the remainder of the day, making the whereabouts of our students a concern.
We also do not have adequate transportation to transport all of our high school and our lower grade students to the parade and bring them back to school. Each year, the problem becomes more complex, and this year the district is struggling to staff enough bus drivers to drive our busses on even a normal day. We cannot guarantee we will have enough bus drivers to transport the students in the parade, the students watching the parade, and fill the routes going home at the end of the day.
While the new parade route is not the same as it has been in years past, we have found a way to continue the tradition of hosting the homecoming parade. We hope that our workforce will normalize between now and next year’s parade, and we can add the square back to the route.
Sincerely,
Dr. Lori Wilson
Superintendent Schools
West Plains School District
