VILLAGE OF COMBINED LOCKS, Wis (NBC 26) -- The Kimberly Area School District has just finalized it's back to school plans and they're asking parents to make the tough choice of sending their kids back to school in person in the fall or dedicating a quarter worth of classes to an online exclusive learning environment.
After getting feedback from parents and staff the Kimberly Area School District anticipates about 90 percent of their students being back in the classroom this fall which leaves about 10 percent of students learning from home online.
Kimberly's superintendent, Bob Mayfield says the board of education is requesting all students and staff to wear masks at school buildings in the fall. Adding that everyone will be getting training on best practices to physically distance from one another. Mayfield adds that staggered lunchtimes, modified recesses and assigned seating when possible are some of the steps they are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at school this fall.
"We have about $2 million right now that is going to be dedicated to COVID response and that's really challenging for us. So we are adding custodial cleaners, they're going to be coming through all day long cleaning high traffic areas, high surface areas. We're adding nursing staff and we're also adding teachers, we have online teachers and we're also reducing some of the class sizes with teachers," says Mayfield.
Kimberly district leaders say one of the biggest challenges they will face in the fall is busing students safely. Right now, the plan is to disinfect buses between every route and to have assigned seating arrangements. Today the superintendent said he hopes some parents will drive their children to school to help lighten the load of the potential burden the busing system is facing.
