By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – The school board received an update Wednesday, Feb. 10, from Superintendent Kurt Weyers on the districtwide return to in-person instruction.
“We said all year-long, our goal is to have our students in-person, where they belong,” he said. “That continues to be our goal… To have 2,800-2,900 students in our buildings again is fantastic.”
This school year, Ashwaubenon had partial or total remote instruction because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but since Jan. 25, students who opted for in-person instruction – 83 percent of total enrollment – have been back in school five days a week.
Weyers said the COVID-19 pandemic “upended the apple cart” over the last year.
“Now its leaders – us, as a school board and administrative team and leaders in our community – it’s our job to bring everyone together and strategically place those apples back in the cart, a very strategic plan on how to move forward,” he said. “It’s time to move forward from surviving to thriving.”
Weyers said Ashwaubenon has experienced “a limited amount of quarantine,” compared to other school districts.
“We have between 2,800 and 2,900 students in-person, other than students that are virtual, and we had less than 100 students in quarantine,” he said. “That’s a real credit to everyone involved.”
Weyers said the criteria being used as a “check engine light” to alert staff when there is a need to assess the safety of face-to-face learning within classrooms, schools, or districtwide when in-person instruction is happening – community spread of COVID-19, staff absences and student attendance rate – remain at levels to keep students in-person.
To trigger a review of whether to switch from in-person to remote instruction, board members agreed two of the three criteria would need to be above the levels they set, though that wouldn’t necessarily result in a switch from one instructional mode to another.
For community spread of COVID-19, for example, the board decided a level above 835 out of 100,000 Brown County residents testing positive over a 14-day period for two of three consecutive school days, with the level trending up or flat, could trigger a review.
“All of (the first week in February) we were in the 300s (for the number of new positive COVID-19 tests over 14 days per 100,000 county residents),” Weyers said. “Our staff absences are ranging from about 6 to 8 percent. We decided that our check engine light was about 15 percent, so clearly below that. Our student absences have been consistently around 12 to 13 percent overall, and maybe lower at the elementary level, more like 7 or 8 percent. Our check engine light there was around 30 percent.”
Weyers credited students and staff for following safety procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
He said COVID-19 testing is available to district staff to get results within 24 hours, limiting the amount of days for staff to miss before getting results.
Weyers said the district’s two school nurses are handling contact tracing for students who have been in contact with someone who has COVID-19, while Human Resources Coordinator Jody Smits is handling contact tracing for staff.
During the winter sports season at Ashwaubenon, he said the district “only had a couple of COVID hiccups.”
“Coaches and student-athletes are doing an outstanding job following protocols that we have put in place,” Weyers said.
He said the district is working with local health care providers on a vaccination plan, with some staff already vaccinated.
Weyers said masks will continue to be worn at school, where there will also be opportunities for “mask breaks.”
“In addition, we continue to do our best to maintain social distancing, and the masks play a pivotal role in that,” he said. “Like I said, we will do our best, to the best extent possible, but there are times in our rooms when we have 30 students in a room. We’re obviously not going to be able to have the proper 6 feet of social distancing.”
Weyers said the district needs to continue practicing the three Ws, “wash your hands, watch your distance, wear your mask.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said. “We’re doing great. We want to keep our kids in school, and hopefully we can continue to do the great job we’ve had over this last month.”
End-of-year events?
Weyers said the district would like to hold events at the end of the year, such as prom and graduation at the high school, if they could be done in a safe manner.
“If we would host prom, it probably would be in-house, and it would be maybe towards the end of the year, so that we have less concern around social distancing and some of those things,” he said. “But, again, our plan is to host these events.”
Weyers said he expects some type of graduation ceremony will be held to recognize the senior class, though it may not look like what normally was held in the past.
High School Principal Dirk Ribbens said the district would have flexibility as to when to hold a prom in-house, because a facility off school grounds wouldn’t be reserved this year.
“We could plan something like that pretty quickly, because we have the facilities all in-house,” he said. “That’s really the biggest date that has to get planned the longest out is where are you going to host it.”
Board Clerk Jennifer Vyskocil said she finds prom to be an important event, but wants to make sure there is a graduation ceremony for the seniors.
“I just don’t want to risk (a high school graduation ceremony) getting locked down, because we have a prom with 250 kids and a couple kids test positive (for COVID-19), and then we have the whole senior class locked down for the end of this (school year),” she said.
Weyers said graduation is the top priority for the senior class.
Board Vice President Brian Van De Kreeke said the district should plan to have a graduation ceremony, which could possibly be held outdoors.
“We need to hopefully give the seniors the right sendoff, which would be a good graduation,” he said.