Key back-to-school survey subject of special meeting

The Port Washington-Saukville School Board will hold a special meeting next week to review the results of a parent survey that will play a pivotal role in deciding whether to return students to classrooms full time.

The Monday, Jan. 4, meeting at Port Washington High School will begin at 6 p.m. with an opportunity for public comments. Then board members and administrators will discuss the survey results.

Supt. Michael Weber described the meeting as a “work session” and said no decisions will be made that night. However, a vote on how district students will be educated during the pandemic in the new year is expected at the board’s regular Monday, Jan. 11, meeting, he said. 

The special meeting, Weber said, gives the board ample time to analyze the survey results while providing the district with a jump-start on planning for a change if one is called for.

“This is a very important decision, so we don’t want to rush the board,” he said. “But at the same time, we have to have enough time at the high school and middle school to implement changes.

“I think at Monday’s (Jan. 4) meeting we will get a good feel for whether the board wants to make a change and what that change will be.”

When asked if it’s feasible to return students to full-time, in-person learning by the beginning of the second semester on Jan. 25 if that’s the board’s decision, Weber said, “That would be the optimal time to do it.”

Prefaced by the statement, “As a district, we are considering a change to full-time, in-person learning at the beginning of the second semester,” the survey that was emailed to parents last week asks if they favor full-time, in-person instruction, noting it provides “limited social distancing;” full-time virtual instruction; or continuing with the current hybrid model.

The questionnaire came shortly after a growing number of parents began calling on the district to resume full-time classroom instruction, saying their children are suffering academically and emotionally under a hybrid system that has provided a mix of online and in-person instruction since the beginning of the school year.

“The hybrid model is not working,” Gary Knaub, who started a Facebook group of parents dedicated to convincing school officials it’s time to return to full-time classroom instruction, said last week.

“We don’t even know how far kids have fallen behind, but I know for a fact my daughter is behind and it’s scaring the hell out of me,” Knaub, who is the father of a fifth-grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, said. 

Even parents whose children have remained on track while learning at home three days a week say quality online instruction is no substitute for the experiences they are exposed to in school.

“I think the high school is doing a great job, but the kids are still missing out on a lot of important experiences,” Melissa Niemeyer, whose son is a freshman, said. “I feel like our district is operating out of fear, which I don’t understand because administrators say school is the safest place to be.”

Parents are quick to point out that other school districts in Ozaukee County started the school year with regular five-day-a-week classroom instruction, and while some of them have had to close school buildings and transition to full-time online education for periods of time, those closings have been relatively sporadic and short-lived. Two area districts that provide full-time, in-person instruction — the Grafton and Cedar Grove-Belgium districts — have not had to close schools. 

With the support of the results of a parent survey distributed in summer, the Port Washington-Saukville School District opted for a part-time return to schools in September that provides in-person instruction only two days a week for most of its students.

At the high school and middle school, students are divided into two groups, with one group in classrooms on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays and Fridays. They are taught online on the days they are not in schools. 

Students in the district’s three elementary schools, where social distancing is easier, all attend classes four days a week. 

All schools are closed on Wednesdays for deep cleaning.

When the district decided on the hybrid model, administrators said it gave the district the best chance of averting a shutdown because of the pandemic. But fears of the Covid-19 virus spreading unchecked in schools have been largely unrealized, even as infection rates have spiked in the communities that surround them. 

“We’re not seeing the type of super-spreader activity in schools that there was so much concern about,” Weber said. “It appears schools are among the safer places to be.”

The Port-Saukville District has not yet had to close schools because of Covid-19 outbreaks, but it will do so next week and provide online-only instruction. School officials hope the extra week away from classrooms will prevent the spread of Covid-19 that students and staff members may contract at holiday gatherings.

The School Board, which has been holding online video meetings, will meet in-person on Jan. 4, although remote audio access will be provided, Weber said. A phone number and access code will be published as part of the agenda.

Copies of the survey results will be available to the public at the meeting.