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Neillsville's District Administrator Provides Update on the Start of the School Year

Friday, September 18th, 2020 -- 11:25 AM

The following is an interview with Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier:

Q: “How is the beginning of the school year going?”

Mr. Gaier: “Again, Riley, thanks for having me and I really appreciate being able to share information through your media. It is really helpful to our families and parents out there, so I really appreciate that.”

“It’s going as well as can be expected. We are in the middle of a pandemic and trying to run schools as safely as we can. I can tell you that COVID really consumes our day. At least as administration. Trying to make sure that every safety protocol that we can possibly have in place is in place and keeping our kids and our staff and our families safe is our number one priority. And it really consumes our day. We’re under a lot of pressures from school comparisons, we have parental pressures, student pressures, political pressures, economic pressures to stay open, but we have to weigh all of that, but really focus on the health and safety of our kids, staff and community.”

“We appreciate everybody’s patience as we do that. We’re just extremely happy that, at this point, we can still have kids in school, at least on alternate days for our older kids and at least four days a week for our younger kids. But we continue to work on the protocols that will keep them safe.”

Q: “During Monday’s School Board Meeting, Mr. Anderson made a comment that they haven’t been experiencing much in the way of disciplinary issues at the high school. I imagine that must be a good feeling for the administration to have the students not making a difficult situation even more difficult?”

Mr. Gaier: “Right. This is a unique school year and in talking to our staff, it has been interesting to hear, especially with our 7-12 kids that are here on alternate days. Those kids are really locked into learning and really engaged in the days that they are here. And I’m also hearing that parents and students appreciate the fact that when they have their work to do at home on those remote learning days, they don’t feel the pressure of that homework compared to when they would get homework normally and they would take that homework home and have to have it ready by the next day. That pressure is gone. So, we think the quality of work has actually been excellent and our staff and kids are really benefiting by the plan that we’re in. So, that has been really an exciting thing to hear”

“And I’m hearing some good things about the kids in the families that have decided to keep their kids as remote learners. That engagement is going well, at least for the families of kids that are joining us on a daily basis. So, we’re excited about that part of it and we hope that we can just continue to operate as well as we possibly can and as safely as possible can under the protocols we have.”

Q: “How many students in the district are doing 100% remote learning right now?”

Mr. Gaier: “It’s pretty close to 100 when we talk about district wide. At least it started that way. We will have numbers reported on that now each month moving forward. A number of the kids that were going to be remote have decided to come back. And just a reminder to anybody that’s doing remote learning, they are welcome to come back and join us in school anytime that they’re ready. And vise-versa. If we have some folks that want to do some remote learning, for whatever reason, we can pivot to that position for them as well. We know that we have to be flexible during this time and we’re very willing to do that.”

Q: “At the board meeting on Monday, the board did approve the October calendar. Based on what I saw, it looks like that plan is very similar to September, but can you talk about that plan a little bit.”

Mr. Gaier: “It really is pretty similar. We’re talking now about Operational Plans. Monthly Operational Plans. And the Transportation Plan will stay a lot like it has been. One thing that is important for folks to know though is that the Student Meal Plan is still back to what we were able to do this summer. So, any kids 0-18, at least through December 31st, are eligible to get meals for free from the district. We are actually delivering meals for those that want them, Monday-Friday. We have our Transportation Department working with our Food Service Department to do that. So, anybody that is interested in doing that, please contact the school district and we would be more than happy to provide meals for kids 0-18 for free, at least through December 31st.”

“Our daily operations are pretty much the same. We still require people to do a daily self-screening of symptoms before they come to school. Face coverings, masks, will still be required for staff and students throughout the month of October, even though the order from the governor may come off on September 28th. We just believe that’s a safe way of doing things based on all the information that we get from the Health Department. We’ll still limit non-essential visitors and any approved visitors will have to wear a mask while they are here.”

“Some other things that are important are the points of contact. That information will be out on our website as well. So, if you have any questions about student or staff contacts, that information will be out there. Our 4K plan, our grades 5K-6th, and grades 7th-12th plans will stay the same. The remote learning option is still available out there. One change that we did make was for parent teacher conferences, those are normally scheduled in October, and those now will be done remotely. So, we’ll have staff providing information to parents for when they can schedule those remote parent teacher conferences through the month of October. So, parents should be looking for that. We also do have student pictures scheduled and it’s important to know that even our remote learners are able to have their pictures taken. They will be able to do that on October 22nd from 8am-10am. So, if they are interested in doing that, make sure they contact their building principals and they will get scheduled in for those pictures.”

“A big issue that I know a lot of people are interested in are the extracurricular activities and the fall sports specifically. The board did approve attempting to have fall sports during the normal fall sports season. And the district relies on the guidance of the WIAA and the Clark County Health Department and the Cloverbelt Conference to hold both athletic practice and the contests as safely as possible. But, due to limited space, only home spectators, and each player will get four tickets, will be allowed for volleyball contests involving grades 7, 8 and our C-Team. But four tickets per player will be available for both the home and visiting team for our home JV and Varsity volleyball contests. We do have enough space for people to socially distance and wear a mask for those. And also, 4 tickets per player will be provided to both home and visiting players for Varsity football contests. But people need to know that activities and events may be postponed or adjusted based on health guidelines. And masks will be required at all those events, so we really appreciate everybody’s cooperation with that. And also, all of our Varsity events will be livestreamed, so people can livestream the games if they’re not able to attend.”

Q: “Do other activities that would normally happen this time of year, like Homecoming, does that fall under the following the guidelines of local health departments?”

Mr. Gaier: “Right, we will follow those guidelines and we will do what we can, as safely as we can, to still try to provide at least some opportunities for things like homecoming?”

Q: “Do you have any final thoughts?”

Mr. Gaier: “Yes, I think that one of the things that people are very interested in is, how many cases are out there involving students? And what are the protocols that we have to have in place when doing that? We’ve actually had one student from each of the buildings now that have tested positive. So, what happens when that occurs is that we have to go back 48 hours from the time symptoms showed, in kids, to find out who close contacts may have been. Well, in the 7-12 building, that case was completely out of the building. And when we go back 48 hours, by the time symptoms showed up in the student, there was no close contact in the building, so there was no impact on grades 9-12 in that case.”

“In the grades 6-8, we did contact tracing and we did have to go back 48 hours and there were some close contacts and we have to share that information with public health and then they take over from there. And we did have one student in the elementary as well where there were some close contacts that we had to report to the county Health Department and then they contact the parents that way.”

“But I think it’s important to realize that, because of the protocols that we have in place, we have not had to shut down school because of those incidences. With the distancing and the masks, especially, those things are allowing us to continue to operate. And I know the most difficult thing for parents to understand, and for a lot of us to understand, is the need for kids that may have been close contacts, but are perfectly healthy, have to stay out for 14 days and the reason is, the Health Department tells us, that students, even though they may not be showing symptoms, can still be contagious for up to 14 days. So, that is the guideline that we are provided with through the Health Department. And just know, parents, if this does impact your child, make sure that you watch for any symptoms to show and to make sure that we will still reach out remotely to those kids and keep them as engaged as we possibly can during that time that they are out. But all of those safety protocols are in place to help, again, keep everybody safe and to make sure that we never have to fully close school again.”

Q: “And I think we should probably just reiterate again, to end our interview, that if the community has any questions, they can contact you?”

Mr. Gaier: “Absolutely. Anytime. Anytime day or night. My cell phone is available in all of my emails, so anybody that needs to call at any time, please reach out. We are more than happy to answer the questions and if we don’t have immediate answers, we will certainly find answers for it.”

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