Graduation ceremony set for August
By Greg Seubert
The Iola-Scandinavia School District will soon have a plan in place to reopen its doors for the 2020-21 school year.
What that plan will look like, however, remains to be seen.
The Iola-Scandinavia School Board is expected to act on the plan at its Monday, July 13, meeting.
Meanwhile, board members learned details of an in-person indoor graduation ceremony scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 8, at Iola-Scandinavia High School.
Reopening plan
Superintendent Ray Przekurat outlined the school reopening plan for the elementary and junior/senior high schools for board members July 6.
“The plan is what it would look like to reopen school,” he said. “That being said, things change on a monthly basis, a weekly, basis, a daily basis and sometimes an hourly basis. Even when you’re going to vote on this plan next week Monday, it’s going to be open to maybe making more changes as we go along closer to the start of school.”
Przekurat developed the plan with input from a 27-member committee that includes school board members, administrators, teaching staff and community members.
“We’ve had three meetings with the committee and made quite a few significant changes,” he said. “We are also going to be working on detailed plans for a lot of these different pieces and we’re going to be sharing that with the board and with the community.”
The plan hasn’t been released to the public yet, according to Przekurat.
“There’s still some work to do on it,” he said. “We will release it once you vote on it on the 13th.”
The plan focuses on safety, flexibility and instruction.
“We are going to focus on in-person classroom learning,” Przekurat said. “Some other districts are doing the same thing. If we have to shift to a different model, we have backup plans for that model.”
Those models include a combination of in-person and at-home learning, as well as at-home learning.
“When that shifting takes place, that’s kind of what we’re struggling with now,” Przekurat said. “Moving between models is that sticking point where we don’t have the exact plan and I don’t think anybody does right now. I don’t think anyone has a good handle on how they would adjust these models.”
Graduation plans
Junior/Senior High School Principal Chris Nelson outlined plans for the graduation ceremony, set for 1 p.m. Aug. 8 at the school. A rehearsal is also scheduled for 3 p.m. the previous day.
“As the plan stands right now, we are looking at an in-person graduation Aug. 8,” Nelson said. “Each student can have five guests in attendance, so they’ll have to determine who that will be.”
Nelson has been in touch with Waupaca County Health Officer Jed Wohlt regarding the district’s plan.
“As long as we’re under 25% capacity and we practice social distancing, we can have it indoors with 250 people in attendance,” Nelson said.
The district is in the process of setting up a livestream of the ceremony on Facebook Live.
“A letter went out to the graduates and guardians last week,” Nelson said. “I haven’t gotten any feedback from parents on that yet, so that’s a good thing. The graduates and their parents wanted to have as traditional an in-person graduation as they could have.”