Quarantine limits

Marathon Public Schools to check for COVID symptoms

The Marathon Board of Education on Monday voted to update its COVID-19 policy following an increase in local positive cases and a quarantine list that reaches past 100 staff and students.

The board voted to consider a mask mandate if COVID-19 cases rise to three percent of staff and students. It also agreed to hire up to two and one half full-time employees to monitor students for symptoms who have had close contact with positive COVID-19 cases. The extra in-school monitoring is an alternative to quarantining students without COVID-19 symptoms who have had close contacts with people who have tested positive for the disease. These monitored students will be encouraged to take a PCR test either on day three or five after their close contact event, depending on whether they are vaccinated. If the students or staff test positive, they will be required to quarantine for 10 days and be symptom free before returning to school.

The board decision followed a civil, if emotional back and forth between the school board and approximately 70 residents, many who claimed repeat quarantines of students last year wrecked their children’s mental health and school performance. Other parents said school staff needed to offer virtual education for quarantined students at home.

Several residents wanted to get rid of quarantining students altogether, but school board president Jodi DeBroux said the school had a responsibility to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the community in order to protect the lives of older, at risk individuals. Administrator Rick Parks said school attorneys have cautioned that the school board has to follow some COVID-19 safety protocol or risk paying out lawsuit awards not with insurance money, but with district fund balance.

Under a previous COVID- 19 policy, masks would be considered if five percent of students and staff were sick with the coronavirus. The Marathon County Health Department says this threshold is “unrealistic,” administrator Parks reported, and suggested a three percent standard. The mask mandate discussion will be triggered by either 15 sick individuals at Marathon Area Elementary School (MAES) or eight at Marathon High School.

“We have not met that number this year, but we are close,” said Parks.

In a compromise with residents at the meeting, school board members agreed only to call a special meeting to discuss masks if a mask threshold is met, not automatically put the mandate in place.

The public’s overwhelming message was that they were done with quarantining students who aren’t ill, but who have had close contacts with students or staff who have tested positive for the disease.

“The root of the concern is the quarantines,” said a district resident. “It would be best to address that.”

Board members did. Presented with two options on how to deal with students with close contacts, board members agreed not to quarantine, as is currently done, but, instead, to monitor students and staff in school for symptoms, hopefully to catch the illness before it spreads.

Several parents said their children had been quarantined multiple times last year and experienced isolation, depression and lack of motivation to do school work. These parents said the mental health risk was a greater concern than their children getting COVID-19.

One parent, who was emotional, said she battled daily to keep her son mentally healthy. “I want quarantines gone,” she said. “I want normal. I don’t want the children to go to school as criminals. The issue is mental health. That’s my son.”

One student said he missed 60 days of school--approximately one-third of the school year--due to COVID-19 quarantines. He said he was lucky that the majority of his classes were offered virtually over the internet so he could keep up with his schoolwork.

One parent said quarantines were ineffective. He said parents did not keep their children isolated. “Quarantines are only as good as parents at home,” he said. “If the parents drag them around to Fun Days, it doesn’t do any good.”

One resident argued that quarantines were an overreaction to a COVID- 19 pandemic that hasn’t, as of now, killed any children in Wisconsin.

“Nobody has died from COVID and we are doing all of this goofy stuff,” he said. “You might as well stop doing it. We’ve been getting sick since the start of time.”

A minority of parents, however, said they opposed getting rid of quarantines for students who have close contacts.

One of these parents argued that her nine-year-old daughter needed protection against the disease. “I have an elementary school student who can’t be vaccinated,” she said.”I don’t have a choice.”

Members of the public largely said they didn’t want quarantines of students who have no COVID-19 symptoms, but wanted more teachers to offer either livestream or downloaded classes for students at home with the illness.

MAES principal Ryan McCain said teachers were burdened with not just teaching school in classrooms but also offering quarantined students materials and online lessons. He said this responsibility was “overwhelming” and a “big burden” when teachers this year do not have a Wednesday prep day, like they did last year.

Parents in the audience applauded Marathon Public School teachers for all the work they have done during the pandemic.

Board members said they were doing the best they can under trying circumstances.

School board president DeBroux said board members cancelled a weekly prep day and didn’t plan for extensive virtual education in the hopes that COVID-19 by now would be history. “It has been very difficult,” she said. “We just wanted it normal.”

DeBroux said teachers were putting in long days, trying to meet the needs of students. “I don’t know how they do their jobs,” she said.

She said the school board had made mistakes, but that they were trying to meet the challenge of the pandemic. “This is an emotional time,” she said.

Board member Ted Knoeck said he was concerned with staff, including administration. “Our staff is A No. 1, but they are putting in long days,” he said. “The administration is putting in crazy hours.” Principal McCain told Knoeck that over 90 percent of his day on Monday had been consumed with COVID-19 protocol, contact tracing and related matters.

Board member Lia Klumpyan said the school board was trying to both keep students safe and their parents satisfied. “I totally agree with parents that you can’t have all of these students miss class,” she said. “We are trying to protect the kids to some degree. We hope to have a plan that most of you will be satisfied with.”