More details on school return released

Administrators last week provided the Cedar Grove-Belgium School Board with more details on how in-person and online teaching and learning will look come Sept. 1.

At the high school, student temperature checks will be done at the beginning and end of each day.

Hallways with lockers will be one-way traffic only. For hallways allowing two-way traffic, students will be directed to stay on the right to limit close contact with classmates.

Students will be allowed to take their backpacks from class to class to eliminate making several trips to their locker, Principal Josh Ketterhagen said.

Dismissals will be staggered by a couple of minutes. Freshmen will be released last to decrease the time they stand in line for buses and to shorten how long they spend riding on them.

At the middle school, temperature checks will be done in the morning and during lunch, Principal Kelly Dzurick said. Office space is being redesigned to accommodate children who have Covid-19.

Large-group band and choir will not be held. For band, three groups of 12 to 15 students will rotate in and out of homeroom, she said.

Movement from class to class will be controlled by teachers, and grade levels will be assigned to use the nearest bathroom to their classrooms.

The Student Council added two no-touch water bottle fillers, and two more will be added, Dzurick said.

She said she is working on holding a fifth-grade orientation.

At the elementary school, 4k students don’t fall under Gov. Tony Evers’ face covering mandate, but Principal Jeff Kondrakiewicz said masks will be used as a teaching tool.

Five lunch periods will be held with a five-minute window between each to avoid students overlapping in the cafeteria.

Day care will be offered for the first time as the district is partnering with Stepping Stones Child Center.

The day care will be located in one of the old kindergarten rooms upstairs. That should work fine, Kondrakiewicz said, unless a student with a disability wants to come. The school doesn’t have an elevator.

Director of Special Education Tamra O’Keefe said the Early Childhood program will stagger children to keep them away from each other. Students will have their own cubbies and materials won’t be shared.

She is considering offering a voluntary behavioral health screening since studies have shown depression in children has increased due to the pandemic.

Open houses were canceled at the high and middle schools and altered to a one-on-one format at the elementary school, but Ketterhagen said one event will go on as planned. Ninth-grade orientation will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 26 to allow freshmen to get acquainted with their new school and ease some of their nerves.

“Believe it or not, we’re going to have something that we normally have,” Ketterhagen said.

Each school held individual question-and-answer sessions with parents this week.

Supt. Chad Brakke said new laptops and cameras with microphones were purchased for teachers to allow for synchronous online learning.