The Ellsworth High School and Middle School will remain at distance learning through Jan. 10, under a plan approved by the school board at a special meeting last Wednesday.

If all goes well and COVID-19’s grip loosens, high school and middle school students will return to the classroom in person Jan. 11.

“It’s not unlike what other area districts are moving toward,” Superintendent Barry Cain told board members and the many staff and community members who “attended” the virtual meeting. The meeting was often times at capacity, as only 100 people are allowed online on the Zoom format.

“At the middle and high school, we are online virtual at this time. We’re recommending a continuation of that,” said Cain. “We felt it’s worked very well so far.”

The district has been virtual at the middle and high schools the last several weeks as COVIDforced quarantines and cases of the virus have affected staffing.

“We will have selected students on site. We have special education students who come in, but we also have selected specialty classes that we can rotate students in on site. We can provide for separation for very specific classes,” said Cain.

Some students are in the building also because they have limited internet access outside of school.

“We also have areas available in both buildings and some families have been taking advantage of them. If they do choose to send their students due to internet issues, we would make sure they’re physically spaced and they are supervised,” said Cain. Athletics will still continue without changes, aside from WIAA guidelines.

“We do feel we can still provide a valuable season for the athletic teams,” said Cain.

Under the plan, elementary school will continue in person, but with four-day weeks for students for the time being.

“This is primarily to provide the teachers time to prepare and meet the needs of all the students,” said Cain.

“We are seeing a definitely steadily increasing rate of COVID-19 absences and exclusions in our district right now. This has been going on for a period of time. We’re seeing that increase dramatically over the last two-three weeks, and so it is becoming more and more difficult for us to be able to maintain the current settings we have right now,” said Cain.