School board keeps four-day weekly schedule

The Marathon Board of Education last week Wednesday agreed to keep a four-day per week school schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic through the end of the third quarter or, possibly, to the end of the school year.

Last summer, board members agreed to in-person school four days per week with Wednesday as an at-home day for students, a prep day for staff and a school cleaning day for school custodians.

District administrator Rick Parks and principals Dave Beranek and Ryan McCain all said that the staff and students had become used to a four day schedule and that, given the continued struggle to deal with COVID-19, it would be difficult to switch to five days a week in-person instruction.

“It would be a struggle to go five days a week for some of our kids,” said Mc-Cain, principal for Marathon Area Elementary School (MAES)/Marathon Venture Academy (MVA). “It would be a very big challenge to have Wednesday removed.”

Parks said that a five-day schedule without a vaccine at this point would be a hardship on staff. “It is unrealistic to do five days a week,” he said. “It’s not physically doable. I think some staff would leave.”

High school principal Beranek said should the school board agree to a five-day school week he would want a four week lag time to adjust everyone’s schedule.

The principal said the district has seen COVID-19 cases drop significantly but, having reached this low point, they are heading up again, most dramatically at MAES.

Board members said they would support the schedule favored by administrators.

“I would be confident about what you come up with,” board board member Ted Knoeck. “I support whatever decision you make.”

School board president Brian Gumtz agreed. “Let’s stay the course and look at the data,” he said.

In other school board business:

_ Rep. John Spiros (R-Marshfield) told school board members that coronavirus legislation AB1 would not deny the Marathon school board the power to deny open enrollment students access to the school if it lacks the space.

Spriros told school board members he would mention Marathon school board concerns about maintaining flexibility with school open enrollment to Assembly Majority Leader Robin Voss (R-Burlington).

_ Board members approved an official intergovernmental 25-year agreement for use of a future Marathon City softball field on land east of MAES. In the agreement, the school board pledges to pay the village $15,000 a year over three years. The village will be responsible for regular maintenance of the softball fields.

_ The board voted to participate in a Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy Voices of Wisconsin grades 9-12 student survey about learning and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus group sessions will be held in January and February.

_ Board members set a board retreat for Saturday, March 13.

_ The board agreed to a calendar with spring break being held the third week in March. The spring break will conflict with state solo-ensemble competition. Other alternatives would have conflicted with state FBLA or the Large Group Festival band concert.

The board decided on open enrollment vacancies for the 2021-22 school year. By grade, they are: 4K, 5; 5K, 10; first grade, 10; second grade, 1; third grade, 1; fourth grade, 2; fifth grade, 1; sixth grade, 7; seventh grade, 1; eighth grade, 1; 9-12, unlimited.

Elementary school staff recommend the school board try and keep smaller class sizes, especially during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

“It’s bad, it’s stressful and it’s tough,” said one instructor. “I’m burned out at the end of the day with my kids.”

Principal McCain backed up the teachers, arguing that school instruction is better in smaller classrooms.

“I’ve had classrooms of 30 and 20,” he said. “There is a difference in the quality of instruction. That’s what I am getting at.”

The group suggested using aides to help teachers, but school board member Lia Klumpyan noted that there was no substitute for a teacher in a classroom.

“Aides are wonderful, but they are not teachers,” she said.

Board members agreed to subtract one student per grade from the open enrollment vacancies recommended by administration.

_ Board members named Connie Stieber as a volunteer musical assistant.