Dear Wautoma Area School District Parents and Guardians,
As the community spread of COVID-19 in Waushara County continues to increase resulting in approximately 100 active cases at this time, it has begun to have a dramatic impact on the student and staff attendance within the Wautoma Area School District. This community spread has led to a moderate amount of active COVID-19 cases brought into the school district, and, in addition, has also led to a large number of Close Contact cases. In both of these instances, individuals have to quarantine for a period of 10 days or 14 days depending on their situation. Also, the district is currently asking families to quarantine siblings of any student who goes home ill with COVID-19 symptoms. Due to this as well as the quarantine safety measures put in place, we have sizable amount of individuals in quarantine at this time.
Even though the district staff has worked diligently to provide In-Person educational opportunities for a large percentage of our students, we need to implement a more stringent structure of attendance and instruction to slow down the impact of the community spread of COVID-19 within the school district. We also want to avoid and/or delay going Full-Time Virtual for the entire school district; therefore, on Monday, October 12, the Wautoma Area School District will transition to the HYBRID TEACHING AND LEARNING MODEL. In this model, students have been placed in a Group A Cohort who attend Monday and Thursday, and a Group B Cohort who attend Tuesday and Friday. This model allows students and staff members to still have In-Person contact during the week, while reducing the number of close contacts during the school day. I have set the start date of October 12 in order to allow families time to secure child care and to make other necessary arrangements.
The Wautoma Area School District will stay in the Hybrid Teaching and Learning Model until further notice. We will examine Waushara County and WASD COVID-19 active cases on a weekly basis and look for trends of reduced active cases over an adequate period of time before transitioning back into full In-Person instruction.
CLICK HERE for responses to your potential questions regarding this transition. We greatly appreciate your support and patience as we attempt to navigate this situation to the best of our ability.
Sincerely,
Tom Rheinheimer – District Administrator