MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) – Marshfield Middle and High School students will go back to class part-time this fall, while elementary kids will head back to their facilities full time. That was the recommendation from district administration approved on a unanimous vote by the Board of Education last night.
Under the “Return to Learn” plan outlined during a nearly-four-hour meeting in the Marshfield High School Commons, Superintendent Dr. Ryan Christianson said M-H-S students will be divided into four groups that will attend classes in-person once every four days, while doing distance-learning the three days in between. “We’re talking about having 300 students enter instead of 600 on a given day and interacting with each other, in the hallways, in the lunchroom, on the buses.”
At the Middle School level, the student body will be divided in half, and attend in-person classes every other day for a seven-period schedule instead of the traditional nine. “We’re going to start by trying to do it by last name of the alphabet,” Christianson said. Students with different last names but from the same household would still go to school together.
At the district’s five elementary schools, 4K-thru-sixth-grade students will attend in-person classes all day every day for starters.
Christianson says students and their families will have the option of full-time virtual learning if they feel uncomfortable sending their kids back to the classroom. “Nothing can replace the rich, in-person learning experience,” Christianson said. “However, we will continue to prepare for different instructional models if in-person learning cannot occur.”
If students do choose to attend in person, they–along with their teachers and principals–will be required to wear face coverings at all times.
