Wauseon Exempted Village Schools students will be staying home a bit longer than anticipated following Christmas break. Superintendent Troy Armstrong announced Wednesday that the district will go to remote education for two weeks to start January.
This two-week remote learning plan will be from Jan. 4 through Jan. 18. January 4 is a teacher preparation day, Jan. 15 is an all staff in-service day, and Jan. 18 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Those three days will be non-instructional days.
The high school went to remote learning prior to the break.
All K-5 students will bring home a Chromebook this Friday. Students in grades 6-12 will continue to use the device assigned to them.
Extracurricular activities will proceed as scheduled during this time period.
“The purpose of going remote for this two-week period is to allow a buffer in the time that students spend outside of school over the holidays,” Armstrong said in a letter to parents. “We saw a large number of quarantines and isolations affect our schools after Thanksgiving. It is our hope that this two-week period of remote learning will help to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 so we can continue in-person learning.”
It will also allow for additional cleaning and disinfecting of our facilities.
Fulton County Health Department officials support Wauseon moving to full virtual instruction following the break.
“This action is a means to prevent further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the resulting impact to loss of education days by students and staff due to resulting illness and quarantine of close contacts,” Health Commissioner Kimberly Cupp said in a letter to Armstrong.
She went on the say that Fulton County has had an “alarming increase” in cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19.
“This pandemic has presented a significant challenge to balance mitigation steps to control the increase of COVID-19 cases with the socio-emotional benefits of in-person learning,” Cupp said in the letter. “Due to the current number of staff and students impacted by COVID-19 illness and close contact quarantine, the decision to pause in-person learning is necessary to mitigate the impacts of disease spread.”
When students do return to in-person learning, district officials are asking parents and caregivers to err on the side of caution and keep students home who have been exposed, or potentially exposed, to COVID-19 or are not feeling well.
Students who attend instructional programming outside of the district will continue to be transported if the program is providing in-person learning.
School meals will be served during this time and further details will be shared at a later date.
