By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer

DE PERE – West De Pere School District Superintendent Dennis Krueger said the district will be going to remote learning for a week after the upcoming holiday breaks to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Krueger said the decision was made with the help of the district’s medical advisors and nurses.

“We see the spread of the virus in the community with social events and gatherings,” he said at the Monday, Nov. 16, school board meeting. “With the holidays coming, we’ll most likely see people getting together with family and friends. Because of this, we feel it’s best to do our part and try and stop the virus from entering our school buildings the best we can. This is a proactive move on our part. According to our medical personnel, if you’ve been exposed to the virus, you can show symptoms up to 14 days after, but usually, it’s within a seven-day range. A few other districts are doing the same thing. We feel good about the plan.”

The dates for remote learning after Thanksgiving break are Monday, Nov. 30, through Friday, Dec. 4.

After the Christmas recess, students will begin remote learning Monday, Jan. 4, and continue through Friday, Jan. 8.

The plan is for students to then return to in-person learning the following Monday (Dec. 7 and Jan. 11) after each week of remote learning from the holiday breaks.

After the district held a COVID-19 workshop for the board and administrators Nov. 2, Krueger said the district’s COVID-19 dashboard is up and running on the district website.

In other news, Krueger also gave an update on next year’s summer school program.

“Summer school will run from Wednesday, June 9, through Tuesday, June 29,” he said. “They are similar dates to the past. We want to continue to grow our summer school program – that’s one of our goals. Last summer we had a hard time doing that because of COVID-19.”

Several district projects are also seeing significant progress.

The new intermediate school going up is seeing more brick and masonry work on the exterior to get it enclosed for the winter.

Windows have started to go in and the roof is finishing up in certain areas.

The high school classroom additions have a target date for use tentatively set for Jan. 18.

Due to the favorable feedback from parents with the recent virtual parent-teacher conferences, the district is considering offering virtual conferences as an option in future years as well.

Several municipalities used their CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities) Act money to buy technology equipment for the district.

The Village of Hobart ordered more than $13,000 worth of document cameras and almost $27,000 worth of Chromebooks.

The Village of Lawrence ordered more than $9,000 worth of Chromebooks, while the Village of Ashwaubenon ordered $2,500 worth of iPad minis for kindergarten and first-grade students.