COVID-19 puts school projects on hold

Strategic plan, high school expansion paused as emergency plans take priority
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

SHAWANO — Plans to expand Shawano Community High School’s athletic and arts facilities have been put on the back burner, due to the COVID-19 virus. Efforts to help keep children learning despite a virus-caused shutdown have also met with challenges, the Shawano School Board heard on Wednesday.

The coronavirus pandemic shutting down most businesses and services have put future plans of many public agencies in limbo, and Shawano School District is no exception.

All schools were ordered to be closed in the middle of March, and schools are not expecting to open anytime before April 24, the last day of Gov. Tony Evers’ Safer at Home order. However, deadlines are constantly shifting at the state and federal levels, so even planning for graduation and summer school is in flux.

The district was also in the middle of gathering public input for its strategic plan, which would lay out a road map for the schools to plan for the education of students for the next 18 years. Public forums had started in early March, but the state order to close schools required putting those efforts on hold, according to Superintendent Randi Anderson.

“My best hope … is that by summer we can bring people together,” she said. “It was good to hear what the community’s dreams and aspirations are for our future students.”

The next step in the process, according to Anderson, is bringing the strategic plan’s steering committee together and examining the data gathered at the public meetings. Then the administrators will craft it into a plan to be reviewed by the community in some town hall meetings and to eventually be voted on by the school board.

“This whole process has opportunities for the community to provide input and to be engaged and involved in where education goes in Shawano,” Anderson said. “We just need to hit ‘pause’ until we can bring the community back together.”

Plans to expand high school’s athletic and arts facilities were pushed back indefinitely.

In early March, the school board approved moving forward with the estimated $3.3 million project, which is expected to be paid for through the district’s fund balance. The original goal was to have proposals from contractors ready for the board to consider at its April 20 meeting. Anderson said that is no longer the case.

“Unfortunately, with all of the COVID-19 implications to public education and Gov. Evers’ Safer at Home resolution, the board will not be ready to take action on the contractors for the expansion of the high school to meet the needs of our students and staff on April 20,” Anderson said.

She noted that the district has not had the opportunity to request and gather bids because other planning took priority. It is something she hopes to revisit once the schools reopen and the pandemic passes.

Work was originally hoped to begin in June, once a contractor had been approved, to minimize the invasiveness at the school, but that now seems unlikely. Anderson said the start date of the project would depend on when the district decides to go out for bids.

“A lot of it will depend on weather, the time of the year,” Anderson said. “There are so many unknowns out there. At this time, we want to continue to move that work forward when we are back to what our new normal is going to be.”

Also causing problems for the district is being able to provide adequate online learning for students. Anderson said there are a number of residents in the towns without internet connectivity, which means they cannot work from home to keep up on their lessons.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade are getting their lessons and work through packets available for parents to pick up, but since grades 6-12 have students possessing individual Chromebooks, those teachers have been converting their lesson plans to online, Anderson said.

“We’ve seen districts in rural settings struggling to get Wi-Fi,” Anderson said. “We’ve been troubleshooting and trying to figure out how for those families who don’t have Wi-Fi access, how we can get that.”

Among the possibility is having the school buses fitted with Wi-Fi and sent out to serve as mobile hotspots or working with businesses that have Wi-Fi to see if families can park in the lots so students can learn.

“We may have some hiccups we need to figure out,” Anderson said, noting that Shawano’s online learning efforts started April 1.

The superintendent said she wants parents and students to continue to reach out to her and her staff in order to keep things going smoothly, education-wise, in the foreseeable future.

“We’re in this together, and we’re doing the best that we can,” Anderson said. “We’re taking one step forward and two steps back because whenever we make a plan or put out a statement about where we are going, new information comes from the state or federal government, and then we have to adjust.”

Anderson pointed out one bright spot among the chaos — the meal program continues to grow. Started on March 23, the program served 7,500 meals last week, compared with 7,000 the week before.

“The meals are available for any child under the age of 18 who lives in the community,” said Anderson, pointing out that the community is any of the towns that are in the district, not just the city of Shawano, and that students do not have to attend public schools to receive the meals.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com