Neillsville District Administrator Provides Another Update on Neillsville School District
Monday, October 26th, 2020 -- 12:37 PM
-The Neillsville School District continues to fight the coronavirus and provide an education to the students of Neillsville.I spoke with Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier and he provided an update on the district. Please keep in mind that this interview was conducted before the recent decision was made to move elementary students to remote learning.
Question: “Once again, I’m speaking with Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier. We’re just about to hit November. School has been in session for almost 2 months. When we last spoke, you said that COVID takes up a big portion of the school day. Is that something you’re still experiencing as we continue on with the school year?”
Mr. Gaier: “Well, Riley, unfortunately, it certainly is. The number of cases in the county, in the state and in the nation are not going in the right direction. Based on the safety for our students and our staff and our families, the November plan that the board approved on October 19th will remain the same as it was in September and October. And, again, we’ll do the very best we can to serve the kids that are here in person on that day they are scheduled to be here and the kids that choose to do things remotely. We’ll continue to do those things. I think we’re improving on those things everyday. I know our staff is working hard to do all the outreach they possibly can to support families during this time. Unfortunately, again, our ultimate goal is to have all kids in school full time, but, as numbers show in the coronavirus and the number of cases we’re seeing in the county and the state and the nation, it’s just not feasible for us to do that safely yet.”
Question: “The November plan seems to be the same as September and October, but is there anything different that you’d like to highlight?”
Mr. Gaier: “Yes, there are a few things. First, the student meals, as of right now, as I’ve said before, kids 0-18 in our district can get free meals. And originally, that was supposed to go through December 31st. And now that has been extended all the way to June 30th of 2021. So, for the remainder of the year, any kids 0-18 in our district that would like to get free breakfast and lunch can certainly sign up for that and we do deliver those on a daily basis. So, contact the school and let us know and we’ll, certainly, be more than happy to deliver meals to folks that can use those. So, that is good news in this whole plan.”
“One of the things that we also have changed because the weather is getting colder is, originally, we did not allow the kids to be using lockers because we didn’t want kids to be lingering in the hallways or be close together at the lockers. But as the weather gets colder we do know that kids are going to be bringing jackets and coats. We certainly encourage that, so kids will be able to use lockers to store their coats and jackets during the day. But we will continue to allow them to use backpacks to carry their class material, so they don’t have to stop at their lockers during the day.”
“And the remote learning plan stays the same and anybody that wants to pivot to remote learning full time or anybody that might be full time remote as of now can certainly pivot back to coming to school on the days that they are capable of coming to school or that they’d be assigned to come to school. So, we’d be happy to have those kids back as well. So, that is a big part of our plan. Moving into November, of course, we’ll have the Thanksgiving break, which will be the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that Thanksgiving week. And we wish all the deer hunters a safe and successful hunt during that time. But that’s pretty much the November plan in a nutshell. Our next board meeting is November 23rd and at that time we will be considering the December plan.”
Question: “Speaking of remote learning, do you know off the top of your head how many kids are participating in that?”
Mr. Gaier: “There’s right around 100 total in the district. I do get those numbers periodically and the next time we talk I will get the exact number for you.”
Question: “How are the sports seasons going?”
Mr. Gaier: “Sports seasons right now, knock on wood, have been going well. We were supposed to be hosting a regional volleyball match Tuesday night, October 20th. Unfortunately, there were positive cases in the team that we were supposed to play. So, the team that we were supposed to play had to forfeit that game. So, our girls volleyball team will be moving on to the next round of the regional, which is Thursday night, October 22nd. So, we wish them the best of luck. Football and cross country continue to move through their seasons. We have not had any positive cases that have come out of that.”
“A lot of safety protocols are in place, so hopefully, we can get through that. In the middle school, I know they’ll be starting the winter sports soon. And, obviously, the protocols that we have to follow to try and do that safely change things drastically. Wearing masks and limiting the number of spectators that can come in based on the size of the facility are all things that we have to keep in mind as well as sanitizing all the equipment. So, we can continue to move forward in as safe a way as possible and we’re certainly always concerned about the health of our kids that participate and we want to do all we can to allow them, even with all these protocols in place, an opportunity to play.”
Question: “You spoke a little bit about those safety protocols. Neillsville, as well as all of Clark County’s school districts, have had some instances of students or teachers testing positive. But, thankfully, they haven’t had to completely close down and would you attribute that to the safety protocols that Neillsville’s teachers and administration have put in place?”
Mr. Gaier: “I think that’s very accurate. I think everything that we’re doing is trying to reduce, number one, any positive cases. And two, if there are any positive cases, really reduce the number of close contacts by our protocols. And that has seemed to work well. That’s why the board has elected again in November to stay in the cohorts for grades 7-12 and in keeping the kids in Kindergarten through 6th grade as self contained as they possibly can. So, I think all of those protocols are tremendously helpful. The other thing that I would like folks to know is that we do now have, on our website, a dashboard that is updated daily. And it lists the current positive cases in each building and then the total positive cases that occurred thus far throughout the year. So, people can go on our website and check out that dashboard anytime during the day or evening.”
Question: “Is there anything else you’d like people to know?”
Mr. Gaier: “One is what’s happening to enrollment here in Neillsville and in public schools across the state. With the new student counts completed, the State of Wisconsin, enrollment is down 3% statewide. The School District of Neillsville is down even more than that. During this pandemic and with families that have moved, our enrollment has dropped significantly. We will not see an impact financially about that until the 2021-22 school year. But the 21-22 school year, and years after that, we will see a negative impact financially because of that enrollment issue. We are working on some things legislatively to try to ease any of that pain. But I think the folks in Neillsville, in the School District of Neillsville, need to know that that is going to be an issue moving forward and we may be asking for their support at some point moving forward.”
“I’d also like to let them know that the board did approve the tax levy at the last meeting and our total tax levy in dollars is down about 1.7% and our tax levy rate is actually down about 3.2%, so taxes should be going down for most people based on that information.”
Question: “Well, thank you John, I appreciate you taking time to speak with me again.”
Mr. Gaier: “Not a problem! And, again, anytime anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out and we’ll do our best to help them.”
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.