Bowler has not seen much COVID-19 activity

One local school district has seen little effect from the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021-22 school year.

“There has not been a lot of COVID-19 activity here at Bowler,” said Bowler School District Superintendent Glenda Butterfield-Boldig.

Butterfield-Boldig said the school is doing what it can to prevent outbreaks of the virus. This includes social distancing, sanitizing and wiping down high-touch areas and abiding by other prevention methods.

Even though this is the case, Butterfield-Boldig said that due to a staff outbreak, the first grade class was forced to quarantine.

As the district continues to manage and prevent COVID-19 cases, they are listening to health recommendations from the Stockbridge-Munsee health department. While listening to health recommendations, Butterfield-Boldig said that they are also respecting others’ rules.

“We understand that different communities have different quarantine requirements,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “We are trying to be respectful of the different rules and requirements.”

In regards to sporting events, Butterfield-Boldig said that they did not cancel any football games this year.

“We have not had to do anything for football games,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “We had some games cancelled, but that was due to injuries on the team.”

As sporting events continue to progress, Butterfield-Boldig was unsure of what was to come for the basketball season.

“There could possibly be some problems with basketball,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “I hope not. But if there is, we will likely abide by WIAA rules and requirements.”

One thing that the district introduced to help mitigate COVID-19 cases are rapid tests at the school.

“These have been wonderful,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “This has been a great tool for us.”

She said that these tests allow the school district to get results for students and staff right away.

“In some cases, we can bring students and staff back from quarantine in less than 10 days, if they test negative,” said Butterfiled-Boldig.

With their partnership with Prevea Health, Butterfield-Boldig said that the school is able to immediately enter the testing results into the state system. She also mentioned that the school nurse has been very helpful in this process.

“Our nurse does a lot to help, including contact tracing and notifying families of results and what to do next,” said Butterfield-Boldig.

She said that five to 10 tests are used per week.

Butterfield-Boldig also mentioned that she has been in talks with superintendents in the CESA-8 region and their athletic conference to discuss strategies to mitigate COVID-19 cases.

“We regularly get together to talk about this,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “Most of the school districts around Bowler offer testing at school.”

Butterfield-Boldig said if an outbreak were to occur at Bowler, they may have to shut down for a limited amount of time.

“Fortunately, there have not been that many cases,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “If there were an outbreak and our staff became infected, we would have to shut down, because there wouldn’t be anyone to supervise the children.”

She also added that the school district has a virtual option in place, where students can access the class material and meet with their teacher twice a week.

Butterfield-Boldig also said that school district is in the process of working with Stockbridge-Munsee to offer booster shots.

“This is still a work in progress,” said Butterfield-Boldig. “We are coordinating to offer vaccinations and booster shots.”

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com