Most kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the Eau Claire school district will return to the classroom four days a week beginning April 5 under a plan adopted Wednesday, Feb. 24, by the Eau Claire school board.

After a two-hour discussion, the school board voted 6-1 to approve the policy, which will end the current model of two days of in-person instruction and three days of virtual education per week ⁠–⁠ a schedule that the bulk of students in the district’s 13 elementary schools have followed this school year. After April 5, most K-5 students will be physically in school four days a week, with Wednesday retained as a “virtual day” during which schools will be thoroughly cleaned and students will learn at home. (Read more details in a letter sent to school district families Wednesday.)

The schedules of students in the district’s middle and high schools will remain unchanged.

“We’ve learned that viral transmission at the elementary level is less than at the secondary level,” school district Superintendent Michael Johnson told the board during a special meeting about the new policy. “The impact of more in-person learning on our youngest learners is more critical on their social, emotional, and academic growth,” he added.

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The impact of more in-person learning on our youngest learners is more critical on their social, emotional, and academic growth.

michael johnson

EAU CLAIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT

Closer Contact

While face masks still will be required, and contact tracing and quarantining for those exposed to the virus will remain, the new policy acknowledges that schools will no longer be able to maintain 6 feet of physical distance between students at all times.

Last summer, the school board adopted the current hybrid model in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has remained essentially unchanged since then, other than a period in late November and early December when the district switched to 100% virtual education when virus cases and quarantines made adequate school staffing impossible.

Since then, however, the number of COVID-19 cases and quarantines in the district and the community at large have declined sharply, administrators said. In the week ending Feb. 20, for example, there were only four positive cases of COVID-19 among school district staff members and three cases among students.

However, according to the Eau Claire City-County Health Department, the county’s case activity level remains in the high-risk category, with 247 cases countywide in the two weeks ending Feb. 17. In addition, the level of virus transmission locally is considered “substantial” under the latest guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

“You can see that the CDC recommends that our elementary, middle, and high schools all remain in hybrid learning models with the required 6 feet of physical distance,” Kim Koller, the district’s executive director of administration, said during the presentation. “We understand that our recommendation for elementary falls outside of the CDC recommendations. However, we have weighed the risk of the additional mitigation strategies that we were able to put into place, and we are confident with our recommendation.”

 

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The proposal that you have in front of you does have risk. ... but it does strategically and deliberately look at risk and consider ways to make sure the environment for that K-5 group is as safe as possible.

lieske giese

eau claire city-county health department director

Lieske Giese, director of the Eau Claire City-County Health Department, told the board that there have been very few school-associated cases of the virus in the community, which indicates the district’s efforts have been making a difference. However, she acknowledged, “The proposal that you have in front of you does have risk. ... It doesn’t meet the basic framework that CDC and the state health department – as well as our local health department – have put forward, but it does strategically and deliberately look at risk and consider ways to make sure the environment for that K-5 group is as safe as possible.”

Other notable elements of the plan include:

• Cohort C – which includes students whose families chose a 100% virtual option for the school year – will remain unchanged.
• Current hybrid students whose families are uncomfortable going back to the classroom with less social distancing may sign up for a new 100% virtual option, dubbed Cohort H (for “Home”).
• Vaccination of educators will begin by March 1, with most staff being vaccinated by early April.

Differences of Opinion

Wednesday evening’s meeting began with comments from half a dozen members of the public. Several noted that COVID-19 appears to be on the decline in the region and urged the board to bring students back into the classroom – including those in upper grades.

“It’s clear our kids not being in school has now become the pandemic Eau Claire is facing,” said district parent Maggie Vinopal.

Others urged a more cautious approach, including teacher Mark Goings, president of the Eau Claire Association of Educators.“While I respect the proposal before the board tonight, we also must recognize there is still much to figure out,” he said. “Let’s recommit to including teacher, student, and family voices as we work our way through the pandemic.”

Ultimately, the board voted 6-1 to approve the policy. The sole dissenting vote came from board member Marquell Johnson, who also voted against the current hybrid model when the board adopted it last summer. Johnson said he supported more in-person learning at all levels – as well as enhanced summer school programs – but said he was worried about the additional burdens that have been placed on district teachers, who will have to again pivot to a new educational model that will be disruptive for them and students.

Tim Nordin, the board’s president, acknowledged there are no good answers when it comes to the pandemic’s impact on education. “No one is going to walk away from tonight’s meeting saying, ‘We did it, we perfected learning in the age of COVID,’ because we aren’t going to do it. But for those of you that think that anyone in this district goes to work or goes to a board meeting without the No.1 priority being the wellbeing of our students … I will push back (on that), because we’re all out here giving every bit that we can to our students.”