Schools adapting to everything COVID-19 throws at them as pandemic surge hits area

Pierce County school superintendents and administrative staff are working overtime – to say the least – to put together plans to keep schools up and running as COVID-19 surges in western Wisconsin.

Schools are changing from in-person to hybrid learning models to completely virtually almost depending on the week, and depending mainly on numbers of staff and students under quarantine.

Staffing is the main issue for local districts that is forcing changes.

“It’s challenging, that’s for sure,” said Prescott Superintendent Dr. Rick Spicuzza. “You have to be on your toes. You come in every day, and you’re doing a lot of reacting. We thought through scenarios going into the school year, but it comes faster than you think.”\ Here’s a look at where local school districts find themselves on the verge of the Thanksgiving break, which many fear will bring social gatherings that will further exasperate the situation.

Ellsworth School

District

“This year has had its ups and downs, no doubt about it,” said Ellsworth Superintendent Barry Cain.

“Our high school was out last week on virtual. That was due to shortages on staff and also a number of close contacts,” Cain said.

The district had about 22 percent of its high school students out on quarantine.

“They’re back this week,” he said. “We’re seeing our staff numbers improve.”

Cain sees this week as a really important one that could force the district into discussions on what could happen the next several months.

“It’s a critical week for us, no doubt about it,” he said.

The district’s eighth grade is currently on virtual learning until Nov 30. Cain said there were too many close contacts at that level but that the problem didn’t spill over to other grades.

“We monitored closely the sixth and seventh grades, and we did not see further cases in those grade levels. We felt good about that,” he said.

“But this is an important week for us moving ahead, it really is. Schools all over are really evaluating what they’re doing,” said Cain. “it’s just the increase in the rates. it’s hard to keep up with.”

Sports are underway – so far – and high school girls basketball started Monday. Players are wearing masks, as are the middle school basketball players that already started their season.

Boys basketball and wrestling are set to start Monday. Cain said he expects more “guidance” on how wrestling will proceed.

“They’re going to really have to examine that. It’s going to be hard to wrestle and keep a mask on,” said Cain.

So far, the basketball seasons are set at 20 games, a handful less than normal years, with two games a week, said Cain. Wrestling will have only single match dual meets only, about a week apart.

“It looks like they’ll have one match a week,” said Cain.

With all the positive tests, COVID-19 is encroaching opon all area districts.

“The big interesting thing now is with the positive rates all around us, what will happen? More and more kids are having reports from family that they have it in the family and they can’t be here,” he said. “We’re definitely at a critical point.”

Prescott School District

It was difficult to reach Dr. Rick Spicuzza Monday, as administration there was making plans for something that they didn’t want to have to do. Prescott announced in a letter to parents sent out Monday night that Prescott Middle School classes are moving to 100 percent online starting Nov. 17 and running until Jan. 11.

“This is one of the most difficult letters I have had to write since the closure of schools on march 17, 2020. As this pandemic continues to unfold, we now have a better picture of our short-term and long-term challenges. As I shared last week, we continue to see COVID surge in Pierce County – right as we head into our rich traditions of holiday get-togethers,” Spicuzza wrote. “Unfortunately, for the Middle School, we have reached that point where there are more students who are engaged through off-campus learning or are COVID+ or isolated due to close contact tracing than are on-site each day. Our ability to appropriately staff the Middle School and attempt to instruct more than half our students virtually while simultaneously teaching students on-site has become a bridge too far for all involved.”

Last week, the district put the high school “into virtual for this week,” said Spicuzza. Next week is the end of the first trimester, and the hope is students can get their new schedules, turn in books and get their new course work.

Overall, the problem at Prescott is what other districts are facing also.

“The problem is stating. it’s really a staffing issues. We haven’t had many outbreaks, knock on wood,” said Spicuzza.

With a lack of substitute teachers, what the district has can now be concentrated at the elementary level, where it’s more of a strain on parents if students are virtual.

“If we can keep the elementary school open, we want to get all the resources down to K-5,” said Spicuzza.

The district chose Jan 11 as a return date for more time.

“It gives us one more week of isolation from new Years to verify we have enough staff and the students are healthy,” he said.

Under the district virtual days, staff is at school where they have the ready educational resources. Students learn “virtually from 9 a.m. -1 :45 p.m., and teachers are available for individual work until the end of the school day.

He said the district had a professional development day Monday and started putting the Middle School play in motion.

“We kind of knew this was coming. We knew if we had a couple more close contacts we could no longer staff,” he said.

River Falls and Plum City

River Falls has decided to do distance learning for the present in response to coronavirus, thereby following Plum City’s decision of November 5. Impacting the decision alongside those diagnosed with the virus are those who have been put under two-week quarantine for being close contacts.

In River Falls, the relative low rate of positive test results to those quarantined for exposure broken down and highlighted in yellow. In other words, break it down and be clear in communicating the numbers, but ‘emphasize the positive’ as much as possible.

In Plum City, meanwhile, off-site until at least November 30 but with extended wireless internet reach at the school, what might be called ‘the quarantine effect’ on school absences isn’t emphasized to quite the same degree, if at all on the school website. Instead, a letter signed by Superintendent Amy Vesperman and two additional staff members invites phone calls from concerned parents and other community members.

“If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us….please take this time to stay safe and social distance,” the letter posted on the school website at www.plumcity. k12.wi.us says. In other words, get it direct. Taking said invite at face value, we rang up the district, and heard back. First though, the River Falls numbers!

“There will be, but they’re not up yet,” River Falls Administrative Assistant Eryn Maloney said of up-to date numbers for COVID on the district website when reached by phone Monday morning. Each Monday night the River Falls School District holds a special board meeting, and the numbers are as up to the minute as possible.

Beginning with student absences, there were 39 students out due to COVID symptoms as of Monday November 16, while an additional 38 students were out due to a household member having symptoms and a whopping 145 students were out due to being a close contact of someone diagnosed with COVID. Meanwhile, a full 49 students had tested positive for the virus, while fewer than 10 students were reported in the infectious stage.

Shifting from students to faculty, there were a total of 15 staff in quarantine because of being identified as being a close contact with someone confirmed to have COVID, while nine were in isolation seeking a medical diagnosis and fewer than five were currently in the infectious period, though 17 total had tested positive.

In Plum City, meanwhile, there have been a half-dozen or so reported student cases over the course of the pandemic, but that wasn’t what led to the decision to close Plum City Area Schools temporarily.

“The main thing was staffing,” Plum City Middle and High School Principal Jeremy Kerg said Monday of the reasons for why Plum City chose to close the district schools from November 5 thru November 30. “At one point we had 10 close contacts and six out for testing,” Kerg went on, adding that he himself had been on quarantine for a time over the matter. At one point some 40 percent of staff was out, either for the virus or else close contact with someone who had it. Staffing issues can affect other things as well, like the ability to adequately supervise the kids who remain. The safest thing to do then, was to close for a period until things were brought back under control. But even as cases continuing to spike generally within the Plum City area, there was still good news.

“I was shocked at how much sports have NOT had an impact on our cases,” Kerg went on, adding that the surprise was a pleasant one. While things might be different for upcoming sports like basketball with sustained close contact, for the present sports had not affected the COVID case load to the degree expected in Plum City, he said.

“We’re hoping to be back after Thanksgiving,” Kerg said of returning to schools, though cases continue to rise more or less everywhere both in and outside the county, and Kerg would give no assurances of a return to on-site classes in Plum City at the end of the month.

“To say 100 percent that we will be back on November 30 would not be honest,” he shared. With many unknowns still left before a vaccine can hopefully be rolled out sometime next year, knowing you can count on local officials to give it to you straight, is one less thing to worry about.