Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

W-M moves to K-12 virtual learning through Dec. 8

WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield-Marenisco Board of Education voted 4-1 Monday evening to keep all students of Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 School in virtual learning through Dec. 8.

The action — in which Board Secretary Stacie Rooni cast the dissenting vote — was taken in relation to a state mandate requiring students in grades 9-12 to adhere to virtual status throughout that time period.

“The board weighed whether or not to move all students K-12 to virtual for the three-week period,” said Superintendent Jason Gustafson in a Tuesday press release.

He added that arguments were given both for and against the move to virtual.

“We all know that virtual learning is not ideal,” said Gustafson. “However, this whole pandemic is not ideal.”

According to the press release, the reasons cited for moving to virtual learning were as follows:

—Because students are housed within a single building, board members believed that removing only students in grades 9-12 would not have enough of an impact on stopping the spread of COVID-19.

—Board members felt it would be inconvenient and counterproductive for some students of a household to attend school while others did not.

—”Staffing is a very real concern in our district,” said Gustafson. “The district currently has only two substitute teachers on its roster. Only one substitute bus driver and one substitute food server are available. Small districts such as W-M would be forced to close randomly if the building could not be appropriately staffed. The board felt it better to have a planned virtual time rather than go day by day.”

—Members of the Western U.P. Health Department stated Monday that COVID-19 case numbers are not going down as they had anticipated last Thursday.

—Prior to the board’s decision, 42 percent of Wakefield-Marenisco students already had been opting for a 100 percent virtual status. “This shows that a large number of our families are not comfortable sending their students to school at this time for a variety of reasons,” claimed Gustafson.

The superintendent concluded, “Although virtual is not ideal, temporarily removing the expectation for teachers to teach both in-person and virtually at the same time will likely increase the quality of virtual education.”

Gustafson said the district will continue to lend devices to students who are in need of them. 

In addition, teachers will be available to students via phone, email, and virtual sessions.

Moreover, he said the district is in the process of setting up hours wherein a limited number of students could come in to the school for face-to-face help with their school work.

—P.J. Glisson

 
 
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