Rising numbers of quarantined students
By Angie Landsverk
The Weyauwega-Fremont School District switched its high school students to a blended/cohort instructional model on Monday, Oct. 5.
High School Principal Jodi Alix said one group (A) attends in person on Monday and Tuesday and the other group (B) on Thursday and Friday.
All students are home for virtual instruction on Wednesday, she said.
“On students’ non-face to face days, they will be asked to log in to their Chromebooks and join virtually,” Alix told the Waupaca County Post.
The students are divided into the two groups by last name.
Siblings with different last names were kept together.
The district has offered in-person instruction to all of its students since school began on Sept. 1.
Monday’s move was due to an increase in positive COVID-19 cases among students and staff, as well as to those being quarantined due to close contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.
Five covid cases
The Oct. 2 update on the district’s website showed the district currently has five positive COVID-19 cases.
The positive cases include one middle school student, one high school student, one Weyauwega Elementary staff member, one middle school staff member and one high school staff member.
Under quarantine as of that date were 56 students: three from Fremont Elementary, seven from Weyauwega Elementary, 40 from the middle school and six from the high school.
W-F’s total enrollment is 807 students.
Four staff members – one from Fremont Elementary and three from the middle school – were listed as being quarantined.
Moving the high school students to the blended/cohort model is also related to the current COVID-19 conditions in Waupaca County.
“I want to emphasize that this decision weighs heavily on all of us. We recognize that this change will present many challenges to families. However, it is in the best interest of our students, staff and community to adjust to the current COVID-19 conditions in our community,” District Administrator Phillip Tubbs said in a Sept. 30 communication to district families.
The letter was also posted on the district’s website.
“Twice this week, I met with the Waupaca County DHS (Department of Health and Human Services) director to discuss the current conditions of COVID-19 in Waupaca County,” he wrote. “Currently, the county is seeing a surge of positive COVID-19 cases.”
Tubbs said the county has averaged 26 positive cases a day in the last week.
He noted Sept. 30 was a record-setting day for the number of positive cases in the county.
Sixty positive cases were reported that day.
A few days later – on Oct. 3 – 70 positive cases were reported in the county.
The district’s Alternative Instructional Model Matrix is its guide to determining whether it may be necessary to switch teaching models.
The matrix calls for a move to Level 2 when the number of positive cases in the county the last 14 days is between 176 and 225, or when five to nine students/staff members test positive for the virus the last 14 days.
The number of new positive cases reported in Waupaca County from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 was 297.
That compares to 138 new positive cases in the county the previous week.
Since the 2020-21 school year began, district administrators throughout the county have met twice with DHS – on Sept. 9 and 23 – to determine if adjustments to district instructional models were needed.
On Sept. 24, Tubbs told W-F’s families the district was able to stay in its current model of in-person instruction for 4K through 12th grade.
The next day, the district provided information on its website about how many students and staff members were either positive for the virus or in quarantine due to close contact with someone.
That update showed the district had no positive COVID-19 cases at the time.
Under quarantine as of Sept. 25 were one Fremont Elementary student, one Weyauwega Elementary student, one middle school student, three high school students, two middle school staff members and one high school staff member.
The dashboard is updated on Friday.
When W-F’s school board met on Sept. 28, Tubbs noted the number of students quarantined had increased since last week.
District acts quickly
Tubbs told the Waupaca County Post the matrix is a guide and that “working with DHS, we decided not to wait until the next determination meeting (Oct. 7) to make a change.”
He said the elementary students and middle school students are already in small groups that stay together for the day.
“We wanted to cohort the HS for tracing and mitigating the virus,” Tubbs said. “We know that we are having a spike in cases in the county and seeing more in the school as well. We will look at all the information and determine what model works best for our school, students and families.”
The district’s original Return to Learn Plan had a blended/cohort model for the sophomores, juniors and seniors.
That was based on the idea that if the district had to begin the school year with that model, the freshmen would be at school for a transition into high school.
Face-to-face instruction has been provided for several weeks, and many of the high school classes have a mix of students from all four grade levels, Tubbs noted in his letter.
As a result, the district decided to change the blended/cohort model to all four grades.
Tubbs is telling families to be prepared if the district needs to continue moving instructional models.
“We will meet again with Waupaca County DHS on Wednesday, Oct. 7 to determine current conditions in the county and the school,” he said. “If we need to adjust to another instructional model, (the) implementation date will be Monday. Oct. 12.”