BONDUEL, WI – The Bonduel School District will bring in students five days a week starting September 1.
The plan is the same for students of all ages in the district. Superintendent Joel Dawidziak said they followed the request of a large majority of the parents.
“There was an overwhelming majority that wanted us to go back to school traditionally,” he said, “14 percent of parents chose virtual and 86 percent of parents chose a traditional start.”
Dawidziak said they have worked hard to put in place a plan for the start of school which includes testing of students and staff, social distancing restrictions, and masking.
“Roughly one-third of the parents who had kids ride the best said they would be willing to drive their own students.”
“At least up to this point, what we have been told is if you are going to require masks, it is all across the board”, Dawidziak told the Bonduel School Board. “We don’t want to start letting this teacher not wear one and this one not wear one because it is just going to cause problems, some of them legal and some else wise.”
He said for students, no official procedure has been put in place by the building principals but he anticipates that students will be asked to mask when they arrive. If a student does not have a mask, he plans to have one provided. Any student who does not wear a mask will likely not be allowed to move throughout the building and will likely have to go home. He says any direct refusal to wear a mask after multiple warnings may have to result in some sort of disciplinary action.
Bonduel families can expect the face-to-face model to be in place at the start, but it is still something that could change anytime.
“Understand that as much as we say we are going to do it this way, there are multiple other entities that may say you need to change and do it this other way.”
The school day will be five days a week and each day will be shortened to allow teachers time to reach out to students who are studying virtually as well as allowing for time for cleaning each day. At this point in time, the district has all in or all virtual options.
“We are working on a blended option to have that in our hip pocket, but our intent is not to actually use it,” he told the board. “It does not make a lot of sense right now to flip-flop back and forth between different models and if we were to switch models, it would make more sense to do that closer to the start date.”
One piece of the puzzle that is missing yet is the guidance of what a positive case or multiple positive cases means for the district.
“Once we open up a school, is it one case versus six cases and how and when do we move. I am vetting that out right now and I plan to make that public by the end of the week.”
Dawidziak says the school board will continue to monitor the health situation in the county and in Bonduel on a regular basis.
LISTEN TO SUPERINTENDENT JOE DAWIDZIAK TALK ABOUT THE 5 DAY A WEEK PLAN
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