School district opens laundry facility for homeless students

GENTRY — While most parents and students take the wearing of clean clothes for granted, the opportunity to wash clothes for wear to school is not available to all. And now, the Gentry School District is stepping up to help those without access to washroom facilities access by equipping a room with a washer and dryer and making that facility available to homeless students and their families.

On Thursday, the school district opened Pioneer Partnership L, a laundry room equipped with a washer, dryer, detergent, folding tables, and WiFi, just east of the intermediate school. The facility is now available to homeless students and their families by simply speaking to a child’s school counselor and obtaining a key. Once card readers, which are back-ordered, are received, access will be granted via the use of student IDs.

The location — away from the high school and away from the classroom areas — makes it possible for students to use the facility away from other students and classmates and without any embarrassment that could cause.

The facility was paid for with

American Rescue Plan/Elementary Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to meet the needs of students classified as homeless by the school district. The district supplied additional funding and work to prepare the laundry room and install the necessary electrical supply, plumbing and appliances.

The new facility was called a team effort by assistant superintendent Christie Toland and

Superintendent Terrie DePaola on Thursday, with school counselors, school administrators and school staff working together to make the washroom facility a reality. The school board approved the funding for the project.

School counselors, school administrators and school board members were on hand Thursday

morning for the official opening of the new facility.

According to the McKinney-Vento-Definition of Homeless used by the Arkansas Department of Education, homeless children and youth are defined as those who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, such as:

• Sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason.

• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to a lack of alternative adequate accommodations.

• Living in emergency or transitional shelters.

• Living in a public or private place not designed for or regularly used as accommodations.

• Living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings.

Randy Moll/Westside Eagle Observer School counselor Natasha McFeeters (left), assistant superintendent Christie Toland, counselor Dea Ann Heinen, counselor Hannah Davis, along with Superintendent Terrie DePaola, federal programs director Brae Harper and transportation and facilities supervisor Jason Barrett, stand in front of a washer and dryer on Thursday in a new facility for use by homeless students and their families to do laundry.

Randy Moll/Westside Eagle Observer School board members David Williamson, Jim Barnes, Stacy Nations and Melissa Holland stand in front of a washer and dryer in a new laundry facility that opened Thursday at the school for homeless students and their families.