Parents infuriated by board’s response to pleas

Frustration with how the Port Washington-Saukville School District is educating students during the pandemic boiled over Monday at a School Board meeting attended by more than 100 parents who said their children are suffering academically and emotionally because they attend in-person classes only two days a week.

One after another for an hour at the beginning of what became a raucous meeting, parents walked up to a microphone in the Port Washington High School Performing Arts Center and told board members their A students are now receiving Ds and Fs.

They said their children’s confidence in their ability to learn has been shaken, leaving them to wonder if  their goals of becoming engineers and doctors are still attainable.

They described the online instruction most students receive three days a week as unsophisticated and inadequate, leaving some bored and others struggling to grasp complex subjects such as physics.

And, choking back emotions, they told of how their children have literally retreated to the dark recesses of their bedrooms without the social interaction they need.

Unequivocally, they called for students to return to classrooms full time for the start of the second semester on Jan. 25.

“I’m very disappointed that there has been zero positive movement toward getting our students back to school full time,” Jen Mrozek, the mother of two high school students, said. “All students are suffering academically, mentally and emotionally.”

The special meeting was billed as a work session for the board during which members would review the results of a recent survey that found 63% of parents favor a return to full-time in-person instruction. 

No vote was scheduled but the expectations were that board members would assure parents that their concerns were being addressed and provide an indication of whether they favored a change to full-time classroom instruction ahead of a formal decision at the board’s Monday, Jan. 11, meeting.

Neither happened.

Evidenced by criticisms shouted from the audience, School Board President Brenda Fritsch’s comments were interpreted by parents as excuses. Questions from other board members were perceived as indications they didn’t know what was going on in schools.

Only board members Doug Miller and Aaron Paulin stated clearly where they stand on the issue. Both said they favor returning to full-time classroom instruction.

Fritsch’s failed attempt to poll board members was greeted by awkward silence, confusion and more jeers from the audience. Parents also expressed disbelief when board member Matt Uselding, who did not speak during the meeting, made an abrupt motion to adjourn, which the board approved by a split vote. 

“Matt, are you serious right now?” Gary Knaub, whose daughter is a fifth-grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, asked. “We’re the people who voted for you and you make a motion to adjourn? These people voted for you and you don’t want to hear what they have to say?”

Visibly angry, parents gathered outside the school after the meeting to vent.

“I’m absolutely furious,” Brian Barber, who has four children in the school district, said.

A meeting that ended in rancor began with rational, although sometimes emotional, statements from parents who explained to board members how the district’s hybrid mix of in-person and online instruction has affected their children.

“Our children are suffering,” Sheila Shultis said. “My daughter doesn’t understand some of the things she’s being taught. She’s very smart, but now she asks, ‘Mama, why am I stupid now?’

“We have great teachers. Why don’t we give them a chance to teach and help our students who are struggling?”

Robert Brooks said his son, who is a sixth-grader, went from being a straight-A student to one who was receiving Cs and Ds earlier this school year, adding that his wife has had to take one day a week off work to help him improve his grades.  

Noting that his son receives 15 minutes a week of in-person instruction in his advanced math class, Brooks said, “Our children are failing classes and falling behind their peers (in other school districts).

Christianne Loeffler, a Grafton School District teacher whose son attends a Port Washington elementary school, said she was initially nervous about the decision by Grafton school officials to start the school year with full-time, in-person instruction, which the district has been able to maintain without shutting down schools even briefly. But that trepidation quickly faded as fears of Covid-19 spreading unchecked through classrooms went unrealized and it became clear that schools are one of the safest places for children, she said. 

“I stand here thankful the Grafton School Board had the confidence we could do this,” she said. 

“Do our kids in this district deserve a full-time education? The consensus is a hands-down yes.”

Knaub noted that if the district continues with its hybrid model, his daughter will receive 70 days of in-person instruction this school year — 38% of what she normally would receive. He was one of several parents who said they would consider transferring their children to other districts if full-time classroom instruction does not resume.

“I know I will look at other options if my daughter continues to receive 38% from this district,” he said to a round of applause.

Sue Orvis said she didn’t think it could get any worse after watching her son, who graduated in June, complete his high school classes online after schools were closed in March.

“Thank God he was a senior and didn’t have to return to this,” she said. “Your virtual learning isn’t virtual learning. It’s glorified independent study.”

Andrea Gust, referring to one of her son’s recent online assignments, said, “They did a scavenger hunt. He had to find something yellow in our house. This is not a kindergarten class. It’s a seventh-grade class.

“My child wants to grow up and go into medicine. That’s not going to happen if something doesn’t change.”

Tracy Modjeski said one of her two sons, who is in high school, has struggled academically under the district’s hybrid teaching approach and now questions whether he has what it takes to achieve his dream of becoming an engineer.

“Our kids are being forced to lower their personal bars,” she said. “I’m pissed that I have to be here tonight begging this school board for change.”

Other parents spoke in heart-wrenching terms about how their children have suffered emotionally while isolated at home.

“He used to light up a room. Now he sits in a corner by himself,” the mother of a high school student said, adding that his struggle with clinical depression has become noticeably worse while learning at home.

“My son needs to be back in school for his mental health,” she said. 

Fritsch, who called herself an “advocate for in-person learning,” responded to the comments by saying that even before school officials began receiving dozens of emails and calls from concerned parents last month she had planned to ask the board to consider increasing the amount of in-person instruction provided by the district. She said the feedback from parents was the first sign school officials had of dissatisfaction with the hybrid approach to teaching.

“I was already thinking and talking about this and increasing social activities because that’s a very important thing,” she said.

But a clearly irritated Paulin noted he has questioned the district’s hybrid model, in particular the quality of its online instruction, as recently as November.

“I find a lot of this conversation from my colleagues quite frustrating,” said Paulin, who is a teacher at West Bend West High School. “I brought this up in November and I was told it was working.

“I’m personally frustrated that these pleas have fallen on deaf ears.”

In response to questions from board members about the implication of returning to full-time classroom instruction, principals said it would essentially mean the end of social distancing in schools and particularly classrooms.

“It would be extremely difficult to do any sort of social distancing,” Thomas Jefferson Middle School Principal Steve Sukawaty said.

Under the district’s hybrid model, students at the high school and middle school are divided into two groups with one group in classrooms on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays and Fridays, which effectively cuts the enrollment of the district’s two largest schools in half. Students receive online instruction on the days they are not in schools. 

All elementary school students are in school buildings four days a week and learn online on Wednesdays.

If the School Board were to make a change, it could decide to return to the normal five days a week of in-person instruction or move to the next phase of the district’s reopening plan, which calls for high school and middle school students to be in classrooms four days a week and elementary school students to be in school five days a week. 

Port High Principal Thad Gabrielse said one advantage of four days of in-person instruction is that it would allow the school to continue offering a resource period on Wednesdays when students can receive additional help from teachers. 

“We could very easily go five days a week as well,” Gabrielse said.

Without direction from board members about how they want to proceed, Supt. Michael Weber asked them if they would like administrators to prepare a recommendation to be considered at the Jan. 11 meeting. (See related story:https://ozaukeepress.com/content/administrators-want-students-back-class....) The board agreed, but that was not what parents wanted to hear. 

“You haven’t had a discussion about whether you’re going to move to another phase, and that’s infuriating,” a woman shouted as the board prepared to vote on the motion to adjourn the meeting.