Grafton stands by in-person class policy

The Grafton School District remains committed to in-person learning as other area districts prepare for increased online instruction.

“It is really critical that we look at our internal data. Just because someone else closes or goes virtual shouldn’t mean we should,” Supt. Jeff Nelson said during Monday’s School Board meeting. 

According to the district’s Covid-19 Dashboard, as of Tuesday, Nov. 24, there were currently seven teachers at Grafton public schools with confirmed cases. The staff members are quarantined and able to work from home, Nelson said. 

As a result, there are 180 students learning from home, with 81 Grafton High School students quarantined, as well as 30 from John Long Middle School, 24 from Kennedy Elementary School and 45 from Woodview Elementary School. 

The Port Washington-Saukville School District will switch to online instruction beginning the first week of January to hold off any potential spread of Covid-19 from the holiday break.

In Fredonia, the Northern Ozaukee School District is holding online classes through Dec. 7. 

Grafton parents will be asked in December to inform the district by Jan. 4 if they plan to have their children attend classes in-person or receive online instruction for the third quarter. 

“We’ve been talking about doing things proactively,” Nelson said. “We want people to feel comfortable, and we will have a better understanding in February.”

Nelson said recent advancement in producing a Covid-19 vaccine is welcome news.

“As we look at next semester, we do believe there will be a big difference between January and June. Things could look different as we move forward,” he said.

“We continue to hear about the new vaccines that are coming out and the positivity rates of it working. We are looking at our data, and we are proactively helping our parents make an informed decision.”

Nelson said several parents have requested their children attend class online before the holidays, which could be problematic for instructors. School principals are currently reviewing the requests.

“Every time there is a change, it adds a stressor for our teachers. It’s great to have a convenience factor for our parents, but we can’t allow it to become the driving factor that can overload our staff,” Nelson said.

“We want to work with our parents, but they shouldn’t be expecting the exact same attention they were getting in the previous learning model because that isn’t necessarily fair to our teachers.

“Their family situation shouldn’t dictate more hours by our staff. We want to be reasonable, but at the same time we have to protect our teachers … the more stressors they have can result in a domino effect for us.”