September 8, 2021
Dear Parents and Patrons,
I am asking for your cooperation and help.
Illness, both students and staff, is challenging our ability to keep our schools open for in-person learning at this time. High staff absenteeism coupled with low numbers of available substitute teachers has created conditions where we have positions all over the district that we are not able to cover on a daily basis. Over the course of the last week we have had as many as 12 positions not filled on a single day. Staff are shuffling assignments to address the areas of greatest need, but it is not sufficient. This week we were forced to close Park School for two days due to a lack of staffing (not just at Park School, but all around the district.) Students and staff who are forced to miss school as a result of COVID-19 miss several days at a time.
We need everyone’s help in order to disrupt the cycle of absenteeism in the district.
That said, tonight our Board of Trustees voted to institute several strategies over the next 4 ½ weeks that are intended to help us reduce the spread of illness and help break the current cycle of absenteeism. The biggest strategy, and I also understand it to be the most controversial for some, a return to a mask mandate for students and staff when they are in our buildings during school hours.
I understand that masking is controversial and unpopular with some, however, again, I’m asking for your cooperation and help. Illness and absenteeism are high in all of our buildings, and we need to do all that we can in order to maintain in-person learning and avoid rolling school closures that disrupt families and student learning, avoid implementing alternate school schedules, and avoid a return to remote teaching and learning which was frustrating and ineffective for many last year. No matter your position as it pertains to masking, if a little change can help us to level out absenteeism so that it is once again manageable, and we can maintain our current programming, then it is a win for all of us.
The Board of Trustees approved the following measures to be put in place from Monday, September 13th through Wednesday, October 13th. Trustees will re-evaluate conditions at their regularly scheduled meeting on October 13th.
Masks are to be properly worn by staff and students when they are in buildings and classrooms during the school day. This includes immediately before and after school when students are arriving or leaving.
o Exceptions:
When eating
When participating in activities such as speech therapy, playing a wind instrument, or during other special scenarios that require the removal of a mask
When only one person is in a room
Masks are not required:
o Outside of a building
o On a school bus
o At after school events such as sports
Other temporary strategies to be implemented include:
o Suspend the use of non-essential classroom volunteers and visitors
o Restrict visitors during the day to the main office area
o Increase efforts to provide distance between desks and between students in
classrooms
o Expand eating area options at schools and allow students to eat in classrooms,
outside, or in other locations besides the cafeteria when conditions allow
o Limit staff release for professional development when a substitute is required
o Ensure sanitizer is available in all classrooms and work spaces
Our goal is to implement a few strategies that are intended to help us slow the possible spread of illness in our schools. We need to maintain healthy staff and student numbers so that we can continue to offer effective in-person learning to students every day. Although some of the strategies may be inconvenient for a while, our hope is that they will help us to return to more normal school conditions as quickly as possible. The success of these measures will require some give and take, and it will take all of us working together for the benefit of everyone. We all play on the same team, and we are all WOLVERINES.
Times are challenging, and I appreciate the efforts and sacrifices of everyone in our community. We have all been inconvenienced and challenged. I appreciate the efforts of our parents and families, as well as the difficult work of our elected officials and our Board of Trustees who are trying to do what is right for the Weiser School District. As Kevin Richert stated in a recent article in Idaho Ed News, “Trustees are not the enemy. COVID-19 is the enemy.” Please keep that in mind as we continue to tackle he challenges of this school year.
Thank you for your trust and support.
Wade Wilson, Superintendent
