The Wautoma Area School Board approved the recommendation to return to in-person learning five days a week starting on March 8 during their regular monthly meeting on Monday, Feb. 8, at Wautoma High School.
Since Dec. 14, the Wautoma Area School District has been operating under a four-day physical learning structure, with Wednesdays being utilized as a teacher preparation day for virtual and in-person students. Eighty-nine percent of the District are attending class in-person, the number of quarantined students and staff is decreasing, plus the number of active COVID-19 cases are dropping, therefore Wautoma Area School District Administrator Tom Rheinheimer recommended the Board approve students returning to school five days a week with the addition of Wednesday, May 5, as a teacher workday.
Rheinheimer also stated the number of students choosing to stay virtual full-time also continues to decrease. Over the past month, Redgranite Elementary School has gone from 13 virtual students to 9; Riverview has gone from 50 to 32; Parkside 58 to 43; and Wautoma High School 84 to 68. At the beginning of the school year, 25 percent of students were full time virtual learners. According to Rheinheimer, as of Feb. 8, only 11 percent of students have opted to continue using the full-time virtual model.
Upon hearing the information presented, the Board agreed it is time to start getting students back full-time and shifting the primary focus to in-person students. Rheinheimer stated the District will still continue to do its best to provide education virtually to those who have chosen that model. Throughout the month of February, teaching staff will prepare for the transition by utilizing their Wednesday workdays.
The Board also approved the cancellation of Parent-Teacher Conferences for the month of February in order to provide more time for students to receive in-person instruction. Rheinheimer stated since there continues to be a lot of communication between teachers and parents, he believed the conferences would not be necessary. Rheinheimer as well as the Board encouraged parents to reach out to teachers as well as the principals to set up meetings if they have concerns. The District is looking to continue with conferences next year, hopefully in-person.
During the District Administrator report Rheinheimer addressed that the District does take windchills very seriously. He stated that the schools will only close when there is a windchill warning, not an advisory. Buses are kept in a garage and are warm coming out; however, if a bus happens to break down, they have a plan in place to get a bus to the students within 30 minutes. So far there has been no issues with bussing this year. Rheinheimer also explained that if any family chooses to call their students in due to the windchill they will not be penalized.
The rate of pay for summer school teachers and summer school paraprofessionals were also topics of discussion with the Board. When looking at the average pay throughout the state it was observed the District was on the lower end of the statistic. The Board approved an increase in the rate of pay for summer school teachers as well as the paraprofessionals who are employed with the District and will be working summer school.
The Board went on to approve the retirement of Michael Fretchel, Parkside School Art Teacher; Emalee Lipke, Parkside School Secretary; David Peterson, Bus Driver; and Jessica Pech, Parkside School Special Education Teacher; the hiring the John McCormick, Substitute Bus Driver; the Auditor Contract for FY21-23; the Revised and/or New Policies, 1st Consideration; and the System and Network Specialist Job Description, 1st Consideration.
