By Lee Reinsch
Correspondent
DE PERE — With coronavirus spread lower, the rate of vaccinations higher and much of society returning to some normalcy, school board meetings for the Unified School District of De Pere will soon be, as well.
Starting June 21, meetings will be held in-person at the De Pere High School auditorium instead of the district office building, with masks optional.
The board has met virtually since March 2020.
Board President David Youngquist said the virtual format let board members focus solely on students and schools, rather than on prepping and cleaning meeting rooms and reminding people to keep masks on and maintain social distancing.
“From day one, this was about helping the community slow the spread of disease, staying safe and keeping the schools open,” he said. “Most of our decisions were based on the Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and we did what we believed was right for the students and the school district of De Pere.”
Youngquist said the journey wasn’t always fun, and parents weren’t always happy with the district, but it all turned out OK.
“We did not meet everyone’s objective or please everyone, but that wasn’t our goal,” he said. “Our goal was to stay open and stay safe.”
Superintendent Ben Villarruel said as of June 1, two students and no teachers were quarantined.
Of the 50 students tested for COVID-19 due to symptoms since June 1, he said none were positive for the virus.
Masks optional
Effectively immediately and into the 2021-22 school year, the board voted unanimously to make masks optional in all school buildings and facilities.
Consistent with CDC guidelines, the district will continue to quarantine anyone who has been in close contact with someone with a positive diagnosis for 10 days without a COVID-19 test, or seven days after receiving a negative test, which must occur after day five.
“If someone has been in close contact to someone with COVID, they don’t have to quarantine if they meet one of these conditions: They have been fully vaccinated; they have recovered from COVID in the last 90 days; or tests have shown that they test positive for antibodies,” Villarruel said.
As part of the continued mitigation strategies, the district will continue social distancing and use contact tracing when necessary.
eduCLIMBER
In other business, the board voted unanimously to renew a subscription to an educational assessment management program, eduCLIMBER, which the district has used since 2018.
The cost for a three-year term is around $60,000.
“The goal of eduCLIMBER is to use data to drive instruction and intervention decisions with students,” Shelly Thomas, director of curriculum for the district, said.
Before eduCLIMBER, Thomas said records were stored in multiple places, and it was harder to pull together the data, such as assessments, academics and attendance.
“It wasn’t easy or accessible for staff,” she said.
Thomas said simply having the data wasn’t sufficient.
“We wanted it recorded, reported and displayed in a way that is easy to interpret,” she said. “We can easily access the data to assess learning, identify needs and monitor the growth of students.”
The board also approved the purchase of $22,000 in wireless microphones and upgraded audio/video equipment for the theater department, plus about $3,500 for installation for De Pere Middle School.
Principal Adam Kraemer said the district saved money elsewhere in the budget, and he was not asking for any funds for the upgrades, just the authorization to go ahead with the purchase.
The board also approved nearly $22,000 for the district’s IT department to buy 70 replacement Apple iPads, plus cases and screen protectors, for kindergarten and first-grade students.
Technology Director Eric Piepenburg said two students use each device, and the devices tend to last about four years before their systems slow down.
He said the batch of 70 would be part of the four-year replacement rotation.