Neillsville District Administrator Provides Update on School District's December Operational Plan

Wednesday, November 25th, 2020 -- 2:01 PM

-The Neillsville School District continues to move forward with educating their students during the coronavirus pandemic.

At the Neillsville School Board meeting, the board approved the December calendar and operational plan.  I spoke with Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier and he discussed the plan in more detail.

Question:  “Is the December operational plan similar to the other plans the district has approved so far this year?”

Mr. Gaier:  “As far as attending in cohorts and the elementary folks attending four days a week, all of that has stayed the same.  Some of the things that we wanted to make the school board aware of is that we may have to alter start times and end times for some of our kids based on potential bus driver shortage.  We’ve been able to manage up to this point, but we’ve had a couple drivers that have had to be gone for various reasons.  And finding substitute bus drivers is very difficult.  So, we did add that as a notice, more than anything, to parents that that might be happening and, if that ever did happen, we would be sure to reach out to every parent and let them know well in advance of that happening.  And we’re hoping that we don’t get to that point, but it may be something that we have to deal with and we just want everybody to be aware of that.  That’s probably the biggest change that we’re looking at.”

“There are some changes to winter sports spectator rules that are a little bit different then the fall spectator rules.  And that is the number of tickets that are going to be allotted for spectators based on the number of student athletes.  And, for Neillsville, it will be based a little bit on where the event is being held.  If it’s being held in the middle school or field house south, then the rules are a little bit different than the larger field house north.  But that will all be in the plan.  And that is all on our website.  So, make sure that people are checking that.  As well as our COVID databoard that’s on the website as well.  And that can keep everybody pretty well up to date.”

“But, at this point, we hope to continue with what we are doing.  We’ll still continue to focus on the gating criteria that has been given to us by the health department regarding our ability to stay open or if we’d ever have to close for a time period.  So, we will keep everybody well notified about that.  And, again, as always, if people have questions, don’t ever hesitate to contact us.”

“The other thing, I think, that folks should know, is that school is scheduled to go through December 22nd.  And our first holiday break for Christmas would be starting on December 23rd.”

Question:  “How did fall sports go and, winter just got started, but how is that going?”

Mr. Gaier:  “Well, knock on wood, for us the fall season was very successful regarding our ability to play and that none of the games that were cancelled, some of the volleyball games, I know, were postponed or cancelled, and none of that was because of coronavirus spread in the Neillsville School District for Neillsville athletes.  So, that went well.  The most important thing to us is giving kids a chance to participate and we were able to do that, and do that fairly safely, and getting as many games in as we possibly could.  And we hope to do the same for winter.  We know how important that is to kids and families and everybody’s mental health.  And to give them something else to think about other than the coronavirus during these difficult times.”

“So, we hope for the best and we hope that the opportunity is going to be available to kids.  But, people also need to realize that we’re going to do it safely.  And games can be postponed, games may be cancelled, but if it happens it is because it is in the best interest of everybody’s safety.  We’ll do the very best we can to contain it.  We have a lot of safety protocols in place.  But this is a difficult challenge.  The coronavirus has been for some time now.  We’ll continue to do the best we can and hope for the very best outcomes for our kids and their ability to participate.”

Question:  “I think that Neillsville is doing a good job of avoiding spread of the virus within the district and if a positive case or exposure does occur, it can be attributed to something outside of the district.  Does that seem to be holding true?”

Mr. Gaier:  “We have been very fortunate.  We now have 33 identified positive cases of students or staff from the building and we cannot attribute any of those to a transmittal that happened in the school. For the most part, we can identify all of those as viruses that had been spread outside of school and nobody that was identified as a close contact to any of those folks ever became symptomatic or became positive.  So, we are very fortunate that we have not had any spread, at this point, within the school.  And a lot of that credit goes to the staff for making sure that the kids are wearing the masks.  A lot of credit goes to the kids for their willingness to wear the masks.  It also, I think, is a testament to the plan that we have where we are bringing in the 7th-12th graders in two cohorts so that we only have half the number in the building at a time.  And it’s working in the elementary where we’re self containing in the classrooms.”

“But the other thing, that I think, we have to give a lot of credit to is the parents that are willing to share with us all of the information that they’re getting about their own families or their children.  And getting us that information often.  We are notified by parents about a positive case before the health department knows.  And so, our communication with the health department has been excellent, in both directions, and that has helped immensely in keeping any spread from happening in the building.  So, a lot of credit to a lot of different people for making that work and open communication between families and school and the school and the health department is going to be key in continuing to control this.”

Question:  “Anything else?”

Mr. Gaier:  “No, I think just the message of keeping up the good work with communication, which is always key.  And we’re entering the holiday season, so make sure that for Thanksgiving and Christmas we’re doing the very best we can in being disciplined at staying safe.  I know it’s a real temptation to get together, but the smaller that we can keep gatherings, and the safer that we can do those gatherings, increases the chances that schools can stay open and kids are going to be able to participate in their extracurricular activities.  So, being cognizant of that and recognizing the importance of that, I think, is vitally important.  And as we enter both the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, we just want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas and hope that we get on the other side of this.  There’s a lot of good news about vaccines out there and I know we’re making some headway in this area of defeating COVID-19.  It’s going to be a process yet, but we hope for the very best.

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