By SARAH PARKER | County Line Editor
In a run-up to an unparalleled school year, the Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School Board considered a range of subjects, many of them related to the Covid-19 pandemic, at its meeting Aug. 17.
N-O-W will offer both five-day-a-week, in-person school and virtual school starting Sept. 1.
The following are some leading points of the board and administration’s discussion:
• Thirty-three students have enrolled in the Falcons Virtual Academy, which is for elementary students, and 28 have enrolled in the virtual school for seventh- through 12th-grade students.
• According to a recent survey conducted by the school, 50 percent of families will need school bus transportation, 34 percent can provide their own, and the remainder will need transportation in either the morning or the afternoon, noted Principal Angela Funk.
N-O-W is encouraging parents to provide their own transportation, if possible, to facilitate social distancing on the buses.
• The district is planning to install flexible plexiglass barriers around the bus drivers’ seats. The barriers will be composed of plastic strips, much like those on a cooler, and that will make them transparent and non-constricting, Superintendent Travis Anderson said.
• Kim Nofsinger of Norwalk serve as a full-time member of the support staff in September and October. His position will have several components. First, he will work as a health assistant to school nurse Carmen Peterson, reporting health concerns and assisting with contact tracing, etc. At the start of each school day, he will work one entrance door, and Peterson will work at the other, monitoring students’ symptoms as they come into the school building.
He also will be a roaming substitute teacher, plus he will serve as a grant writer.
At the end of October, he will resume his regular job with the La Crosse School District and will continue to work part time with N-O-W as needed.
At Brookwood, Nofsinger has served as play director, track coach and junior high cross-country coach.
Part of Nofsinger’s salary will come out of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding.
• The district recently spent $20,169 with CDI Technologies for laptops that students can take home if the school has to shift to virtual-only offerings. The cost of the laptops will be covered by the CARES Act.
• Nancy Powell, Bette Ferries and Shirley Gibson, all of Ontario, recently created face coverings for staff members, noted Anderson. “They’re very well-done,” he said. “We’re very grateful for the donated masks.”
• The district has contacted Global Plasma Solutions regarding air-quality equipment, which could be covered by CARES Act funds, Anderson said.
• Two new water-bottle filling stations recently were installed, as the drinking fountains have been turned off. One is in the third-grade hallway, by the restroom, and the other is in the high school cafeteria.
• The 2020 prom is tentatively rescheduled for April 17, 2021. The event will be designed for both years’ courts.
• Driver’s education is underway, and 31 students are enrolled. Students work in a socially distanced classroom and are wearing masks.
• Covid-19 testing for N-O-W employees recently was offered at Scenic Bluffs Community Health Centers, Anderson said. Thirty-four had signed up.
• The district also is enhancing certain spots on the school grounds for student use. The Chris and Jerome Leland family of rural Norwalk recently spruced up the school’s memorial garden, spending several days trimming bushes, etc.
“It looks amazing, and it’s now an outdoor space our kids can use,” Anderson said.
Also, interactive signs are being created for the school’s nature trail.
Board member Cari Keith will head up a newly formed Falcon Garden Club, which will monitor the gardens, make improvements, and offer gardening-related education.
• Special-education director Cindy Springborn noted that teachers within that department had coped with distinct challenges after the Covid-19 closure last spring.
“I think the special education teachers did a very good job trying to be creative. It’s difficult to teach a child with special needs one-on-one or face-to-face in the classroom, much less try to do that over the computer through Zoom.”
Though teachers used virtual options, in other cases, they’d take a traditional route, communicating through phone calls and sending home paper homework.
For students who have chosen virtual school this fall, speech and physical therapists, among others, are going to set up Zoom sessions.
In one case this summer, the physical therapist did an evaluation in someone’s driveway while social distancing, Springborn said.
“The little child was playing on the swings or the trampoline, and (the therapist was) halfway down the driveway, saying, ‘Now jump on one foot!’”
She added, “I’m really fortunate that the staff will go above and beyond for the kids.”
• School custodians also have been doing their part to get the buildings ready for the new year.
“The school is looking phenomenal,” Anderson said. “I think it’s the best it’s looked in many, many years. The custodians are working hard every day.”
• The teachers have been putting in significant hours as well, Anderson said.
“They’re all masking when they’re coming in the building. They’re setting a good example for everybody. I appreciate all of their efforts as they prepare for a school year like no other.”
The board also reviewed the following other business:
• During the Norwalk Tractor Pull earlier this month, Damian Dinger, owner of Dinger’s Ag and Auto Repair in Norwalk, organized a rubber-duck race on Morris Creek.
Before the event, Dinger had sold 950 ducks at local businesses for $5 a piece, offering a 50/50 raffle, with half of the proceeds going to the N-O-W lunch program. Sean Holen won the duck race and donated $1,000 of his share of the winnings back to the school. Altogether, the school received $3,500 for the food service program.
• Brookwood recently received the WIAA Award of Excellence. According to a press release prepared by the WIAA, the award “promotes and recognizes the efforts and achievements of schools in the areas of sportsmanship, ethics, integrity, leadership and character. Schools and athletics administrators experienced unique and additional challenges this year with school closures and the cancelation of high school activities in the spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
N-O-W is one of the few schools that have received the award for the third year in a row.
• Janet Jeffers will serve as a long-term substitute teacher for English teacher Renee Mayne; and Susan Case, for 4-year-old-kindergarten teacher Cassandra Pingel. Both teachers are on maternity leave. Case and Jeffers are retired N-O-W teachers.
Also, Brad Lindberg of Tomah will be a long-term substitute teacher for Brenda Fernholz, a kindergarten teacher.
• Special-education aide Robin Hamilton has resigned to take a job at Century Foods, and Pat Flock, also a special-education aide, will take a one-year leave of absence due to Covid-19 concerns. Alexa Watters and Tyuanna Kaiser will take their place.
• The family of Jenny Muehlenkamp donated several hundred dollars to the school’s kitchen, Anderson said.
• The company Garage Floors has repaired the floor in the Family and Consumer Education classroom.
• The school has purchased $62,050 in prepaid liquid propane from Premier Cooperative.
• The Wisconsin Department of Instruction recently revised its standards for English language arts instruction. Principal Gayle Luebke had put together a binder for all of the staff members, comparing the old and new standards. The standards will take effect in 2022-23, but in the meantime, teachers will review which changes need to be made.
Physical education standards also changed, though the changes aren’t as “cut and dried” and don’t as neatly compare, Luebke noted. A binder for those changes has been created as well.
