News

WHITEWATER, WI, August 11 — At its meeting Monday night, the School Board of the Whitewater Unified School
District (WUSD) voted to approve the district’s Fall Instructional Plan. As a result, students will engage
in a combination of in-person and virtual learning starting Tuesday, September 1.
The district will begin the school school year in Phase I, which means students in grades K-5 will take
part in virtual learning with a rotating schedule of small-group in-person classes. Students in grades
6-12 will participate in an orientation-to-schools day with virtual learning follow-up instruction.
Prekindergarten students will learn in small-group in-person classes on two half-days each week.

“We are pleased to move forward with what we believe is a sound plan for approaching the upcoming
school year and all of the uncertainties associated with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
teaching and learning,” said Dr. Caroline Pate-Hefty, WUSD District Administrator. “While we know that
not everyone will agree with every decision we make, we will continue to work to minimize risks for
students and staff while providing a high-quality educational experience to all of our students.”

The district also will offer an all-virtual option for families who cannot or do not yet feel comfortable
having their children attend school in person at this time.

To help students and families gain a greater understanding of the virtual platforms that will be used for
teaching and learning this school year, WUSD will hold training sessions on Tuesday, August 18 in the
Whitewater High School auditorium. A Seesaw training for parents of students in grades 4K-5 will start
at 6:30 p.m., while a Google Classroom training for grades 6-12 will begin at 7:30 p.m.

The district will also provide a Spanish-facilitated version of the presentations on Wednesday, August 26 at 7 p.m. in the Whitewater High School Library Media Center.

Banner note: The following fact sheet which provides an overview of the Fall Instruction Plan was referenced in the press release, though not part of it. We found it to be helpful.

Submitted by Rob Boostrom, Board Vice President for Downtown Whitewater, Inc. and Associate Professor of Marketing for UW-Whitewater

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is obviously a big part of our community. Yet, often, it seems that the students don’t see much of the town and sometimes don’t feel like they’re part of it. To help bridge the gap between the students and the town, Downtown Whitewater is beginning its Classroom to Community Connection program.

To be sure, this isn’t the only effort in this area. The university’s own Community-Based Learning (CBL) program has been guiding faculty and staff to create really wonderful programs to meet the needs of area businesses and organizations for a while now. They offer many tools for connecting students to community members and Downtown Whitewater, Inc. continues to be a proud partner with this program. You can find out more here: https://www.uww.edu/ce/cbl.

That said, we feel there are two ways that Downtown Whitewater might help facilitate additional connection. First, we want to continue working with businesses and organizations to connect them to opportunities to work with students via the CBL program. We hope to act as a kind of matchmaker for organizations and instructors who want to take part in that process. Second, some instructors might be interested in trying something less comprehensive than the CBL process. We would like to help those instructors find community partners that might add to the classroom environment in a smaller way.

As such, we are now asking businesses and non-profit organizations to describe up to three different problems that might be addressed in some way by student projects. These should be projects which require the application of some expertise and the output would be some kind of strategic plan, tactical recommendations, or creative work. The problem doesn’t need to be extremely specific or lengthy but should communicate the expected area of expertise that will need to be applied.

For businesses or organizations who are just interested in connecting to students, your problem or interest area might be hypothetical. Consider asking a radical question about how something could be promoted or how a resource might be applied. This can be a way to either get help with a real problem or just connect to students from a particular class in a new way to raise awareness.

We are also asking instructors to provide a brief description of the kind of inputs you’d need (like participation of the business owner) and the outputs a client might expect (such as a plan, presentation, or creative materials). Descriptions generally would only need to be a few sentences long to communicate the basics of what is required.

For businesses, organizations, or instructors that would like to find a partner, please contact Downtown Whitewater’s President, Lisa Dawsey Smith, at ldawsey06@gmail.com. Provide either the description of what you’d like a class to help you with, or if you’re an instructor, the description of what you’d need from a partner and what you’d provide. We’ll be collecting these until August 20th. We plan to have all match suggestions sent out by August 28th.

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

In a 3 hour meeting on August 10, the Whitewater Unified School District School Board extended the reopening plan that it approved in its July 27 meeting for another two weeks, ending on September 25. The motion was passed 6-1, with Jennifer Kienbaum dissenting. Under the plan, 1/4 of the elementary students will each attend in-person learning with cohorts of four to eight students on the days of Tuesday – Friday from 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. 4K students will be in school two mornings or afternoons per week. Middle School and High School students will only attend a single orientation session during the first week of September, and then be online for the rest of the month. Special arrangements will be made as needed for ELL students, those who are at risk, and those who are unengaged by online learning. 

The board also voted that at a special meeting on September 14, depending upon the status of COVID in the area and the schools, they hope to affirm that the schools will be returning to fulltime in-person instruction as of September 28. (Note: the Banner story initially said “regular meeting.”)

Before making the decision, the board heard from the epidemiologist with the Jefferson County Health Department, who explained his rationale in recommending that school districts not return to in-person education until the 14-day positivity rate of COVID-19 testing is below 8%. Pam Streich, Educational Consultant with Jefferson County, clarified that the county does not have the authority to close a school; they may only make recommendations. They look at not only the positivity rate, but also the hospitalization rate, the community spread, whether the trend is up or down, and other factors. District Administrator Caroline Pate-Hefty indicated that the district is computing a positivity rate that utilizes the rates for Jefferson, Rock, and Walworth counties, adjusted for the percentage of the students who reside in each of the counties. That rate is currently 8.2%.

Dr. Pate-Hefty indicated that 658 students have registered thus far, out of an expected enrollment of approximately 1900. 22% of the enrollments have selected the virtual model. Parents will be able to change the model of choice for their student(s) at the end of each quarter of the school year.

The board adopted a policy that any students who are exempt from the requirement to wear a face mask will be encouraged to wear a face shield. (Note: the Banner story initially said “required.”) Members also voted to utilitze as a guiding document the Jefferson County Health Department metrix, retitled the “Jefferson Health Department Reopening County Schools and Addressing the Spread of COVID-19” plan which was just released on August 10.