Wisconsin State Superintendent Says In-Person Schooling Disruptions May Continue this Year

Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 -- 12:01 PM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) Disruptions in in-person schooling may continue to be an issue into 2022, says the head of the Department of Public Instruction.

State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly tells Capital City Sunday that many districts have been losing the manpower to keep schools open. "It goes beyond teachers. And when you think about cafeteria and food service, you think about transportation, custodial clerical, you think about playground supervisors. And if we don't have staff healthy, we can't have school."

Underly tells Capital City Sunday that it's unfair to compare smaller districts to larger ones when it comes to keeping the doors open. "Maybe they're not as crowded? Certainly, in smaller school districts we're able to have more kids, or we're able to be in person because we have fewer kids, for example, in a classroom."

That's after both Madison and Milwaukee schools had to switch to virtual classes recently due to spikes in COVID infections in staff. Underly says it's important to keep students safe, and that's hard to do without staff on site at schools.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.