Manawa board OKs school plan
By Greg Seubert
A plan for the Manawa School District to reopen its schools in September has three options.
Superintendent Melanie Oppor covered details of the plan July 27 during a Manawa School Board meeting. Board members eventually gave unanimous approval the plan, which Oppor said could change based on new local, county and state health factors.
The plan, which covers Manawa Elementary School and Little Wolf Junior/Senior High School, had input from a committee that includes district and community members.
“Unlike some of the committees that we’ve had in the past, this committee was not charged to reach consensus or to agree to all elements of a plan,” Oppor said. “We did ask them to be the conduit to the community, to be the ears, the eyes, and gauge the public response to the plan as it was starting to unfold over the past several weeks.”
Learning options
• In-person classroom instruction. Under this choice, students in grades 4K-8 would attend class five days a week, while high school students would attend on alternating days.
• Synchronous instruction. Under this choice, students would receive live, real-time instruction online.
• Blended instruction. This choice includes any combination of in-person, synchronous and recorded lessons, as well as teacher consultation.
“We’re offering at this time three parent choices,” Oppor said. “We’re hoping within the next couple of weeks to survey parents and get their intentions on these three choices.”
Oppor said the synchronous instruction option is different than this spring’s virtual learning.
“Some people still call that virtual, but we wanted to choose a slightly different name,” she said. “In the spring of last year, we did virtual instruction, but it was not live, real-time. We wanted to make a distinction about what we intend to do as an offering.”
Levels of risk
Besides offering three learning options, the plan also includes three levels of risk related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Currently, we’re in the moderate to high risk category for Waupaca County,” Oppor said. “Across the southern part of the county, where we have our larger communities, we have the largest incident rate of people testing positive for COVID-19, but all communities across the county have been affected, to include Manawa.
“Lower risk is something we could go to if we see a steep decline perhaps after a vaccine and/or we see a situation where there’s a declining number of people actively having COVID-19,” she said. “If things were to become increasingly worse, school closure would be the next step, which for us would mean online learning for our students.”
Masks not required
The plan does not include a requirement to wear face masks in school.
“There are so many unknowns,” art teacher Nancy Zabler told the board. “This is a pandemic, this is not the flu. There are some people that will get flu-like symptoms and that’s all they are going to get, but there are so many unknowns about this disease. We are finding out there are so many long-term effects from this disease. Even if we come out of it with flu-like symptoms, we don’t know what’s going to happen down the road with this.
“Anything we can do to protect each other we need to do,” she said. “I will protect my students to the best of my ability. I will protect my staff to the best of my ability. I hope my school board will also protect all of us to the best of their ability. I would appreciate at the very least that everyone is required to wear masks. There are studies that say that (the virus) hangs in the air.
“In my field, I need to go close to students and help them,” she said. “I can’t teach from 6 feet away. I have to walk in toward them to help them. By breathing and talking and possibly coughing, they have sort of a cloud around them that I’m walking into. I would appreciate at the very least that everyone is required to wear masks.”
“Would it be advantageous to let a classroom teacher require masks where someone else may not?” board member Russ Hollman asked. “It seems logical that you would not want to be exposed. Would it be possible for that teacher to say, ‘OK, I would like all students to wear masks?’”
The district’s legal counsel suggested teachers need to be in line with a board-approved plan, according to Oppor.
“The inconsistency isn’t recommended by legal counsel,” she said.
“I understand that, but losing a staff member to COVID wouldn’t be that great, either,” Hollman said.
Oppor said two local school districts – New London and Marion – will require face coverings all the time for the upcoming school year.
“I think we can try to make some differences for different teachers and work it out like that,” board member Lucas Seeger said. “I don’t think we can just go forward saying, ‘No, this is the answer, you’re all wearing masks.’ I don’t think that’s the right thing to do here.”
“I work in health care and you are required the minute you step on the premises to have a mask on,” board member Bobbi Jo Pethke said. “Am I loving it? No, but is it a great reason for protecting myself, protecting my family? We don’t know all the answers, but I think if we have to do what’s right to protect the teachers, protect the students, protect the parents, the grandparents, I guess that’s why I think the face coverings are needed.”
“I feel we have to be supportive of our teachers and help them any way we can,” board member Russ Johnson said. “This isn’t going to be easy for them. These kids aren’t going to learn with masks on like they do normally.”
“How are we going to deal with students not wearing masks?” Seeger asked. “What if we have 20 kids in the office because they’re not wearing masks.”
“Our kids have been incredibly respectful, especially when our staff asks them to do something,” Oppor said. “Rarely do we find a situation where someone’s overly defiant. If people are feeling that strongly, my guess is they’re probably going to use the synchronous or the blended learning option if they’re that adamantly opposed to any type of face covering.”