Shawano School Board plans full reopening in January

The Shawano School Board voted on Dec. 7 to bring all of its schools back into session five days a week in mid-January, giving the school district over a month to put safety measures in place to prevent the risk of spreading coronavirus.

Hillcrest Primary School and Olga Brener Intermediate School are already going back to class two days a week starting this week, Superintendent Randi Anderson announced last week. Once school resumes on Jan. 4 after the holiday break, those schools and Shawano Community Middle School will be in school for five days a week, while Shawano Community High School would have the hybrid model of two days in school and three virtual until the semester ends Jan. 15.

Families that made the request to remain all-virtual would be allowed to continue to do so. All students have been in an all-virtual environment since the end of September, frustrating many families.

The board made the decision after an hour of hearing comments from parents who decried the virtual learning system as useless and demoralizing. The current state of affairs also caused strife among some of the board members.

Board member Bruce Milavitz, who made the motion originally to have five days a week in January, said that making plans to reopen fully in a month would give the district the opportunity to set up Plexiglas barriers in classrooms and more so that the potential for closing again if coronavirus cases spike is lessened.

“We really only have 148 active cases,” Milavitz said, quoting what Shawano County emergency management coordinator Jim Davel said during the community comments. “That doesn’t mean it’s a teacher. That doesn’t mean it’s a student. That just means it’s within the boundary levels of the district.”

Milavitz said he felt the board should focus on properly educating the community’s children and leave the health issues to those who are qualified.

“Our job in this room — which is a virtual room, is the fact that we are in charge of education,” Milavitz said. “We need to take care of the things that we’re actually in charge of, not the things we’re not in charge of.”

Board member Mart Grams pointed out that the district exists to provide education, and the virtual system, as it stands, is not getting the job done.

“Virtual is not working. It’s terrible at best,” Grams said. “My son dropped out of school. That’s how terrible it was.”

Grams noted that there are also cases of high school students contemplating suicide, so the virtual environment is more of a health hazard than the school buildings themselves. He pointed out that Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has also recommended that schools go back into session for five days a week.

“I am 100% in favor of five days a week right now,” Grams said.

Board member Michael Sleeper, who was the lone vote against the motion, said he supported the school reopening plan but felt the middle school should also be in a hybrid environment for the two weeks following the holiday break.

“Trying to implement a different format for the last two weeks of that semester, pragmatically, seems to be quite disruptive,” Sleeper said.

Board member Chuck Dallas noted that the board heard from 22 community members about the state of the schools, and 21 of them wanted the schools to be open five days a week.

Board member Chris Gull said it would not be possible to open the schools full time right away, but he felt that with an extra month, that would give the district an opportunity to get the quick tests for COVID-19 to immediately determine if there is an outbreak in a classroom or school.

“If we don’t make a goal, we’re never going to achieve the goal,” Gull said.

Gull added that, even if the district’s goal of five-day schooling is achieved, the community, students and staff will still need to work hard to make sure the schools don’t close again. He noted that the hand washing, social distancing and other safety measures would need to be strongly enforced.

Board member Mike Musolff supported the plan but said he wanted to make sure the district is concerned about its staff, noting adults are more vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus than children. He said it was ridiculous that bars were open and in full swing, but the schools were not.

“Our community, which I love dearly, has had this little plague of ‘I don’t have to wear a mask to be a good citizen,’” Musolff said. “I agree with our rights as citizens of this great country, but it does not take too much to be a better citizen and wear a mask.”

Anderson told the board that, if the current coronavirus levels, which have dropped from their peaks in October and November, stay where they are or go down even further, it would be possible to keep the schools open.

Anderson said that the quarantine period being reduced from 14 days to seven to 10 will help to keep schools open and noted that the district is working on a possible partnership with local health providers to put more safety measures in place.

“The next two weeks are critical for us to be able to test and refine our internal mitigation system and strategies to allow us on Jan. 4 to come back in a blended environment,” Anderson said.

Anderson suggested revisiting the issue Jan. 4 to make sure the district’s gating criteria can support having students in school five days a week.