SHAWANO, WI- Tuesday marks the first day that of full, five days a week, face-to-face learning in the Shawano District.
The decision was made in December to return students in grades Pre-K through 8 to a full face-to-face learning model after Christmas break, with the High School going full face-to-face at the start of the second semester on Tuesday, January 19.
Superintendent Randi Anderson said they go to see a lot of positive from students returning at the elementary schools and Middle School.
“It has been phenomenal and going very well”
Anderson to the Shawano School Board on Monday that their mitigation strategies are working well.
“We are excited and optimistic and we continue to ask people to mask, wash their hands, and social distance so we can keep our kids in the school. Our community numbers continue to go down.”
This week will be the first week this school year that all students will be allowed to be in the building at the same time in the High School. Families were still able to choose a virtual education to start the new semester, but a large number of the students returned.
“It was interesting, we had kids that saw each other in person for the first time in about 10 months,” High School Principal Scott Zwirschitz said. “We had kids separated alphabetically, so a kid with the last name of A and a kid with the last name of Z has not been here together since last March.
Zwirschitz said in some ways, it was like the first day of school again, but the kids had a better feel of where they were going and how the day operates than they would on the first day of a new school year in September.
“I think they were ready to go and they are getting back into their routine.”
In order to make things safe for all, the school did make some adjustments.
“We are still doing all of the mitigations that we can. We have sanitizer in every room, we are still masking and I think for the kids, it is pretty much what they are used to, there are some changes on the back end.”
One of the changes that kids may notice is the addition of a third lunch period.
“We have three lunches now instead of two in order to limit the number of kids in the commons.”
Zwrischitz says the other change is with moving class to class.
“We are allowing students to have backpacks in the classroom and we are asking them not to stop at their lockers, so kids are in the hallways but they are moving from class to class and not standing around and having possible contact.”
He says that allows the students to be in the hallways at the same time together.
TESTING AND SCREENING
The Shawano School District is continuing with COVID screening for students and staff who sign up in advance. The screening is in connection with ThedaCare and it takes place on select dates in January.
“This helps us identify those asymptomatic students and staff and help keep COVID-19 out of our system so we can keep our students in,” Superintendent Anderson said.
Another change is the addition of rapid testing for staff members.
“We will be able to complete that on-site so we can eliminate the possibility that it could be COVID-19 more quickly,” she said. “We are continuing to do everything that we can to keep our students in the building and we are really excited to have them back.”
LISTEN TO HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SCOTT ZWIRSCHITZ TALK ABOUT THE RETURN OF STUDENTS
LISTEN TO SUPERINTENDENT RANDI ANDERSON ADDRESS THE SCHOOL BOARD ON KEEPING STUDENTS SAFE
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