CLINTONVILLE, WI -Over two dozen parents stood outside Clintonville High School Monday, sharing frustrations about the district reopening plan that has students of all ages coming to school face-to-face for two days a week.
The School Board recently approved opening the district in a “high-risk” category which equals two days in school and three days at home each week.
The parents opened up to Superintendent David Dyb and School Board President Lori Poppe.
“I will sign a waiver,” one mother said. “You have not seen me upset yet, one father said.”
Parents were pushing for either four or five days a week of face-to-face for various reasons.
“If an outbreak is going to happen it is going to happen if it is two days or five days, so why not dive in.”
Students are scheduled to split into two groups with one group coming on Monday and Tuesday and the second group coming on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday would be a virtual learning day for all and social distancing will take place when students are in school.
Parents asked questions regarding a timeline for when they will know which days their kids would be face-to-face and how long is the model in place.
“We are still waiting on about 300 registrations and the teachers do not come back until next Tuesday, so we can’t even get the logistics done until then,” Dyb answered.
“What about these parents who are both working and they have younger kids, what are you doing for those,” multiple parents asked.
One parent said her job depends on a decision. “Today was the day for any parents who have to quit their job to put in their two-week notice without penalty,” she said. “I need them to go back to school so I can go back to work.”
Some parents were in attendance to express the need of returning to school for their child’s well-being.
“They were very active in this community and they are going crazy. There are no sports and they have not learned anything new since March and these are kids that want to be in school,” one parent said.
“For the first time in his f’ing life, my child misses school, and he never says he misses school,” one mother said holding back tears.
My kids did nothing wrong and they should not be treated like it seemed to be the comments echoing over and over again from the crowd.
Dyb said he is still waiting for more guidance from the state and that every superintendent is frustrated.
Dyb says he is also frustrated because he has not received any information from the state health department that would guide the district in knowing at what number of positive cases dictate when the district has to shift education models.
He recommended that parents share their comments with the entire board at the next meeting Monday night. The meeting will take place in the Clintonville High School Auditorium. The meeting will begin at 6:00pm and anyone interested in speaking is asked to arrive about 15 minutes early to fill out a blue sheet.
“You are standing up there and saying we are going to do it this way, so I guess I hope that next Monday we can actually speak.”
A Facebook Group has been started to express their concerns.
The video of the protest and discussions can be found here.
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