2020 Winter Falls Pride Fall Magazine-2 - Flipbook - Page 6
FALLS PRIDE | PAGE 5
COVID-19 RESPONSE
COVER STORY
The evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges for school districts around the
globe to secure plans to return to school with certainty. Last summer, the SDMF school board decided to
offer two models of instruction for our SDMF families: In-Person/Hybrid/Virtual and Fully-Virtual. We began
the year with grades 4K-12 in a hybrid model, offering smaller cohorts to maximize social distancing. In
October, we allowed our youngest learners in grades 4K-2 to return to full, in-person learning. We are
excited to have students back in classrooms and will continue to increase our safety efforts, like the
installation of the needlepoint bipolar ionization system in each of our six schools, so that we can stay safe
to stay open. With safety as our top priority, we continue to work towards full, in-person instruction. The
District continues to monitor the situation as it evolves utilizing recommendations from the State of
Wisconsin and Waukesha County along with available public health data.
Our intention during the 2020-2021 school year is to maximize the days students experience in-person
learning without having a negative impact on school and community spread of COVID-19. The movement
between instructional models will be driven by an ongoing analysis of district leaders' internal and external
considerations. Before making a decision, information is reviewed to assure that the school community's
impact is fully understood and that the best model is in place.
SDMF maintains a public dashboard which shows school-level data for COVID-19 positive cases and
quarantine data for students and staff. Worsening data or staffing changes could require a change in our
educational models. The primary drivers considered include:
Positive case rate among students and staff
Analysis of internal spread in schools
Quarantine levels among students and staff
Staffing levels in schools
Ability to consistently implement mitigation strategies
Scan the QR code to visit the SDMF COVID-19 Metrics Dashboard