A return to school plan for the 2021-22 school year was adopted by the Neenah Joint School District Board of Education at a special meeting on July 27.
Among the items in the plan, students, staff and visitors will not be required to wear masks for the 2021-22 school year unless incidence, prevalence and/or transmission of COVID-19 becomes high. The plan permits administration to work closely with local health officials in making changes to the policy within classrooms, schools or the entire District as warranted.
The plan also provides a process for free, on-site PCR testing for all District students and staff. The testing may be required in the event of two or more cases in a single classroom. All students entering a school health office with COVID-19 symptoms will be required to take a test. Unvaccinated students showing symptoms who do not wish to be tested will need to quarantine for 10 days.
Lunches will be served in the cafeterias and normal dining spaces during the upcoming school year and masks will also be optional for students riding buses. These practices may also be adjusted based on classroom, school, District, or community prevalence and/or incidence.
Helping students accelerate learning and focus on their mental health are two main priorities in the plan for the 2021-22 school year. Students will receive “just in time” instruction to support untaught content or skills when related material is presented during the school year. Additionally, 15 minutes will be scheduled into each school day to support the social and emotional well-being of students at all grade levels.
The Board also approved allowing the public to begin attending Board meetings in person. The virtual Zoom format will continue as well.
The full plan is effective immediately for students in summer school. Any changes will be communicated to each specific classroom, school or the entire District as they are determined. The full plan may be viewed by clicking here.
Several personnel changes were also approved. Teaching hires included Lee Blank at Horace Mann, Samantha Griesbach at Taft, Alyssa Udean at Clayton, Allison Guerra at Clayton and Washington and Jodi Zehner at the high school. Tammy McCarry was hired as a health assistant at Lakeview and Heidi Haley will be an educational/health assistant at Taft. Immediate resignations were approved for Wilson and Hoover literacy coach Cynthia Keberlein, Taft educational/health assistant Jessica Pena-O’Connell and Lakeview educational/health assistant Jennifer Koeppen-Millerd. Operations staff member Francis “Buddy” Diedrich also resigned, effective July 30.
The next regular Board meeting will be August 17 at 6 p.m. The Board voted several months ago to only hold one regular meeting in August of this year.
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