SHAWANO, WI- The Shawano School District Administration revealed plans to the School Board Executive Committee of what they hope to avoid, but need to address. Superintendent Randi Anderson and Director of Instruction and Personalized Learning Kurt Krizan showed a framework of how virtual education would look if the district needed to go that route.
“If we don’t have enough teachers in the building, we can teach in the building,” said Anderson.
The Executive Committee learned that on Wednesday, 35 staff members were out and 13 of those spots were not filled by substitutes.
The plan presented would have virtual learning for five days for grades 6 through 12. Elementary students would remain face-to-face during that five day period.
“At the Middle and High School age, students are more able to work independently, and they may be old enough to stay home by themselves,” Krizan explained.
The last time the district went virtual, many parents expressed how their work schedule was impacted because they had to stay home with their young child and help them with school tasks.
“It would be for a period of five days,” Krizan said. Following the five days, he explained that their would be an evaluation and if their is enough staff, they would return to face-to-face.
“This is not based off of cases of students,” said Anderson. “This is completely based on if we have enough staff in the building.”
The recommendation was made to have the full school board vote on the plan. That will be done during a special virtual meeting that will take place Thursday, January 6.
The plan also explains how the information of going virtual would be released if it got to that point.
“We will monitor absences on a daily basis and if we have hit a critical mark, we will communicate with parents by noon that day that we will be moving into a virtual environment for grades 6 through 12 the next day,” Krizan said.
Anderson reiterated that they are not at that critical point yet, but they want to be ahead of the issue.
“We have been limping through,” Anderson said.
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