WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) –The Wausau School Board narrowly voted to move forward with a potential in-person school start date of November 2nd.
In a special meeting late Monday evening the Wausau School Board discussed the latest plan to reopen schools. District Superintendent Dr. Keith Hilts gave a presentation about what in-person school would look like moving forward. He explained that the district would have two separate plans for elementary and secondary students. The elementary plan would bring all students back to school.
“We would bring all 4K-5 students back and keep them in cohorts. Asterisk, families can obviously choose to have their children stay virtual. To identify the challenge of managing both virtual and in-person learning we would hire, we would reallocate our own staff to teach the children of the families who choose to remain virtual. So that the classroom teachers could just manage the students in front of them and probably a few that end up being on quarantine. We will adhere to social distancing. We will enforce the masking. We will continue the hygiene practices.”
Whereas the secondary plan would look more like a modified version of the initial plan B. Administration would split students into two different cohort groups alphabetically, A-L, and M-Z. Hilts says it will be up to administration to decide what that cohort schedule will look like in their own buildings. “We will be able to social distancing using those numbers. People are saying will they be alternating weeks or alternating dates? Frankly, from a transportation standpoint, it doesn’t matter. the buses are going to run their loops and whoever gets on gets on.
“At the school level, the principles are working with their staff and their schedules to see what might work best. I know for instance here at West through the flex mod of 5 days might work better. So we’re letting that be a site-based decision about the actual schedule. Also because of the cohort model, originally we had said that teachers would teach the students in front of them and monitor students at home simultaneously. Again we hear that’s not sustainable.
“Last spring we were pretty focused on a technique, it’s not a new technique, that’s called the flipped lesson. Essentially, if I’m teaching my chemistry class, students who are at home I’m going to have them do things they can do at home. They’re going to do some reading they’re going to do some work. their going to watch some prerecorded lectures, whatever it might be. That’s in preparation then for when they come back next week where they’ll do the lab work and the discussion and whatnot. Following up and building on that work they did at home.
With the plan approved, Hilts says the next steps will be contacting parents to figure out the exact numbers for the plan details. “This week we would put out an information video to families so they’ll have good information about what their children will be experiencing in school when they come back. Then we are going to reach out to them individually. We have an agreement that we would ask if parents want their students to remain virtual. We would ask them to sign an agreement after we make that contact.
“From that now we have a number of students by grade level by school. Now we have to match the number of virtual students with teachers who we’ll be teaching those students. That option costs us time. We have to inform parents, ask parents, then identify the staffing needs for that group of students. That’s got to be at least two weeks and then we may have to rebalance classrooms, basically starting the school year again based on those parent choices.”
School Board President Tricia Zunker cast the tie-breaking 5-3 vote in favor of the plan to move forward. The plan will be re-evaluated on October 12th at the board’s next meeting. The board will also appoint a new board member that evening to replace former member Theresa Miles who stepped down in August due to health concerns.
During the special meeting, the board also narrowed down the list of candidates for the open school board position from 12 candidates to 4 candidates. The board will interview former board member Jeff Leigh, local physician Kay Gruling, UWSP Marathon professor Mark Holdhusen, and River Valley Bank assistant manager Nicholas Bisgrove. The four finalists will answer questions from the board at their October 12th meeting before the board votes to appoint a new member to serve until the April election.
