Wausau School District. MWC file photo.
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — More recommendations for the upcoming school year have been made by the Wausau School Board.
Monday evening the Wausau School Board made recommendations regarding both a district mask requirement and the start of the fall sports season at their education and operations committee meeting. A mask requirement will be in place for staff, students over the age of 5, and visitors for the beginning of the year. While fall sports will begin as scheduled on September 7th.
The masking requirement for the district was put together by the administration and presented by Director of Pupil Services Angela Lloyd. The requirement does include some exceptions such as, “outside as long as 6 feet of distance is maintained, can be temporarily removed to eat or drink, but care should be taken to maintain as much space as possible between people.
“People who are entering the school building during the day may be required by school staff to briefly remove their face covering for the purposes of checking identification. Staff working alone in their offices, classrooms, vehicles, or other job locations who do not have any person-to-person interaction.
“Or when communicating with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing or has a disability, medical condition, or mental health condition that makes communication with a face-covering difficult, provided that social distancing is maintained to the extent possible.”
Other school districts in the area and across the state have similar masking requirements for the school year. Three modifications were made to the requirement by the school board. The modifications include specific language that masks must cover both the nose and mouth, there will be ongoing evaluation of the masking requirement, and that any medical exceptions must come from a doctor or licensed mental health professional.
The vote in favor of the masking requirement was unanimous. Board member and treasurer Lance Trollop expressed his reason for supporting the requirement despite slight concerns about younger students wearing masks. “The most important thing is getting our kids back in school.
“And I’d rather have our kids back in school with masks than not have our kids back in school. And I really believe wearing masks is going to move up the timeline of when we can get our kids back in school. And it’s going to also allow us to keep our kids in school longer.”
The last item on the board’s agenda for the education and operations committee meeting was a decision on the fall sports season. Initially District Superintendent Dr. Keith Hilts recommended that high-risk sports like football, soccer, and swimming be moved to the spring season option given by the WIAA. While low-risk sports like golf, tennis, cross country, and volleyball would proceed as scheduled.
While board members understood why the administration recommended moving high-risk sports to the spring, most had concerns regarding the move. Some of the concerns of moving sports to the spring season included the schedule of other schools in the Wisconsin Valley Conference to minimize travel, the spring weather, and that sports are a voluntary activity for students.
Trollop expressed that high-risk fall sports would most likely have the best chance of completing a season in the area during the scheduled season. “I’m not convinced that we’ve got a better chance of having a full or close to a full season in the spring than we do in the fall. But this might be the safest time to have those sports because they’re not in school, and they’re outside.
“And it also might be the time that they need it the most because they’re not in school, they’re not socializing with their friends. They may need this more. This may do a lot of good things for these kids because they may need it more now than they do in the spring if we’re back to a hybrid or in-person education at that time.”
Most board members agreed that fall sports would have the best chance to be completed as scheduled in the fall. The board gave that recommendation to the administration as stated by board member and Vice President Pat McKee.
“We continue with all of the fall sports as scheduled in conjunction with any additional safety measures that administration deems necessary. And should our conference choose to postpone a fall sport to the spring, we would follow the conference’s direction and postpone that particular sport as well.”
With high-risk fall sports beginning the week of September 7th, student-athletes would not use locker rooms according to Wausau West Athletic Director Brian Miller. Students would instead go home and change while at home.
The vote to start the fall sports season as scheduled passed the board 7-1 with Jane Rusch being the lone no vote on the decision. In accordance with WIAA policy high-risk fall sports will begin practice the week of September 7th. Low-risk sports like tennis, golf, volleyball, and cross country are already in progress.
Comments