District welcomes calm start of school

The usual mix of excitement and nerves when a new school year starts had some added complications when the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District started classes on Tuesday.

Masks — some with Cedar Grove-Belgium Rockets logos — temperature checks and sanitizer were a few of the new elements due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, many of the processes and procedures at the district’s three schools were different. More lunch periods were added, traffic patterns were altered and students were grouped into small cohorts to reduce exposure to one another.

Day one went by without any major events.

“Yesterday was uneventful in a very good way,” first-year Supt. Chad Brakke, the former Saukville Elmentary School principal, said.

“There was a lot of excitement as there always is on the first day of school. I think just getting through the day was a huge relief for students, staff and parents.

“The first few days will be just getting used to the schedules and adjusting to the new routines and protocols that have been put in place. The biggest questions on everyone’s minds are how things will unfold once students or staff get ill, test positive for Covid-19, or are identified as having close contact with someone else who has tested positive for Covid-19.”

Areas have been established to isolate students who are ill, but the process hasn’t been tested yet.

“We have all the guidance documents and flowcharts, but until it actually happens we are just in a wait-and-see mode,” Brakke said.

About 100 students, or 10% of the district’s enrollment, chose to attend school online.