Parents call for kids to return to school full time

A growing number of parents are calling on the Port Washington-Saukville School 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 in September.

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

As of earlier this week, the Facebook group had more than 500 members.

“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, whose daughter is a fifth-grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, said. 

“I started this group because every time I bump into other parents, the first thing they say is, ‘We’ve got to get our kids back in school.’”

Administrators worked quickly this week to respond by emailing a survey to parents Monday that read, “As a district, we are considering a change to full-time, in-person learning at the beginning of the second semester” on Jan. 25.

The survey asks parents 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.

A recommendation from administrators, which is to be considered by the School Board at its Jan. 11 meeting, hinges on the survey results, Supt. Michael Weber said Monday.

“We started the school year in our hybrid model based on the results of a parent survey,” he said. “If we change our model, it will be based on the results of this survey.

“It’s the board’s decision to make, but if a majority of parents want us to stay the course with our current model, then that will be the recommendation we make to the board.”

While other school districts in Ozaukee County started the school year with regular five-day-a-week classroom instruction, the Port-Saukville School District opted for a part-time return to schools that provides only two days a week of in-person learning 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.

In summer, 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.”

While some area school districts that provide full-time, in-person instruction have had to close school buildings and transition to full-time online education, those closings have been relatively sporadic and short-lived. Two districts in the county that provide five-day-a-week classroom instruction — the Grafton and Cedar Grove-Belgium districts — have not had to close schools.

The Port-Saukville District has not yet had to close schools either, but it will do so the week after the holiday break 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.

But that has further irritated some parents who note the additional week away from classrooms comes just before final exams.

“The biggest frustration is that everyone else around us is in school five days a week,” Knaub said. “It’s like our district said to itself, ‘This just isn’t going to work’ while other districts said, “We have just got to make this work.’”

In a letter to the editor published in this week’s Ozaukee Press, a group of eight parents wrote, “Going into the school year, no one knew how things were going to play out and it was thought that in-person classes of any form would be short-lived. Most districts in the surrounding Ozaukee County area have done a great job of preventing and mitigating the spread of the virus while staying in-person five days a week.”

Adding to parents’ frustration, Knaub said, is the district’s online instruction.

“We’re in a hybrid model that only includes two days of in-school instruction, and while they like to call the other days virtual learning, there’s nothing virtual going on,” he said. “Kids spend three days doing homework and using a program that basically requires them to teach themselves.”

Melissa Niemeyer, who’s son is a freshman, said Port Washington High School is providing quality online instruction, but even a good online program can’t compare to in-person instruction. She is concerned that her son is missing opportunities to develop relationships with his teachers and peers and participate in extracurricular activities and events that are important parts of a high school education. 

“I think the high school is doing a great job, but the kids are still missing out on a lot of important experiences,” she 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 now turning up the pressure on school officials, and School Board member Aaron Paulin, who has questioned the district’s approach to online instruction, said he welcomes the input and opportunity to scrutinize how students are being educated during the pandemic.

“I definitely think we need to review and revisit everything we’re doing,” he said during an interview this week. “I think the group (of parents) has forced us to re-examine our current practices, and that’s a good thing.”

As the father of a sixth-grader, Paulin said, he understands the frustrations of some parents.

“A lot of concerns they (parents) have I share,” he said. “My daughter only sees her math teacher once a week. They say there’s time on Wednesday for students to check in (online) with teachers. It’s one thing to be in a Google meeting, but at the end of the day it’s all about direct instruction.”

Paulin is a social studies teacher at West Bend West High School, which after starting the school year with full-time, in-person instruction, switched to a hybrid model, although one that is different than the Port-Saukville District’s approach.

When Paulin teaches half his students in person, the other half of the class is participating in the same class at the same time but online in what is referred to as synchronous learning, he said. The next day, the two groups of students switch.

“As a teacher, I believe our hybrid model is highly effective,” he said.

Port-Saukville administrators have said the district’s approach to online instruction varies by grade level, class and teacher. While there have been examples of synchronous learning for small numbers of students who are quarantined and the opposite when quarantined educators teach students in the classroom via computer, the district has generally taken the so-called flipped classroom approach to its hybrid program. Instead of being introduced to new content in the classroom, then doing homework and projects that reinforce it, students are introduced to topics at home then further explore them in school.

School Board President Brenda Fritsch, who has two children at Port High, said she believes the hybrid model has worked well for many students, although she knows some have struggled.

“By no means is it perfect,” she said. “I know other districts have had their struggles, so I don’t think there is a perfect approach.”

Fritsch said she had planned to have the board review the district’s hybrid approach before the start of the second semester, adding that until last week when she began receiving calls and emails she had not received a single complaint from parents. 

“I think it’s time the board looks at what’s next,” she said. “We should look at what we can do better in the new year.”