The Sheboygan Area School District (SASD) began the 2021-22 school year with a five-day per week, face-to-face instructional model and adheres to the following health protocols. Accordingly, the District will:

• publish the COVID-19 pre-screening checklist and strongly encourage students and staff members to utilize the checklist before entering a school facility,
• encourage staff members and students to stay home or go home if they are showing COVID-19 symptoms or if they have tested positive for COVID-19,
• strongly recommend that students, staff, and visitors wear facial coverings while inside school buildings,
• provide sanitizing stations throughout the building, and
• offer free COVID-19 antigen and PCR testing to all students, staff, and families.

The SASD will offer in-person learning five days a week according to the Board adopted 2021-2022 Academic Year Calendar. The school district has also provided families the option to enroll their students in virtual learning across all grade levels (4K-12th grade). In the event of school closure due to the pandemic, the District has provided Chromebooks and/or iPads for all students to continue virtual learning.

Regardless of the mode of instruction, the Sheboygan Area School District will continue to provide meals under the community provision as long as USDA continues the allowance. Meals will be provided for summer school attendees as well as all eligible youth during the school year. If school is closed due to a pandemic, the District will assess its ability to distribute meals utilizing the same process it used during the spring of 2020 and throughout the 2020-2021 school year.

The District employs full-time school nurses who will continue to offer health services in-person or virtually. The school district will continue to provide school counseling services to support students and families and will also continue its community partnership to provide the PATH (Providing Access to Healing) program to further provide mental health support for families.

The Sheboygan Area School District Board of Education adopted a threshold to determine when students, staff, and visitors will be required to wear masks and when mask-wearing will be optional. The threshold is based on student COVID positivity levels within individual schools. Details about these thresholds can be found on the district website.

Mitigation measures such as proper signage, touchless faucets, water bottle filling stations, and the promotion of social distancing have been implemented at each facility. Individual schools will determine the cafeteria service that best suits the needs of their students. Depending upon the COVID levels within a school, cafeterias and/or classrooms may be used as settings for student meals.

Transportation will comply with CDC guidelines regarding facial coverings and capacities that are in effect during the 2021-22 school year.

Handwashing and respiratory etiquette is taught to students with high emphasis in the primary grade levels. Signage is posted throughout buildings as reminders of handwashing and respiratory etiquette.

In addition, hand sanitizing stations/liquids are available in all classrooms, hallways, and common areas.

Cleaning has been moved from an A/B schedule to daily cleaning in all classrooms, rest rooms, locker rooms, offices and common areas. High touch points are cleaned throughout the day. The District uses cleaning solutions that are rated to kill the SARS virus. Hand sanitizer stations have been added to all classrooms, entrances and selected common areas.

The District has increased the percentage of outdoor air being circulated within the building. Air exchange has been increased to the maximum amount that each unit can handle. District has replaced HVAC controls to better monitor and control indoor air quality.

The SASD will continue working with the Sheboygan County Health Department on contact tracing. To provide transparent reporting for our stakeholders, the District maintained a COVID-19 case dashboard throughout the 2020-21 school year and has made enhancements to the reporting system for the 2021-22 school year.

The District will guide parents/students, employees, and contractors on screening protocols for the daily pre-screening process, which all parties should complete before entering the campus/building. Each school will continue to provide current health information to staff, students, and families about the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, when they should stay home, and when they can return to school. Procedures and protocols for symptom monitoring, contact tracing, when individuals may return to school/work can be found on the district website.

The SASD recommends students and staff get tested for COVID by their medical provider or a local pharmacy. The District also worked with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to coordinate COVID testing sites at schools. There are 19 schools within the Sheboygan Area School District that have on-site testing. Students, staff, and family members have the option to be tested at any time, including routine testing, when they are identified as close contacts, or become symptomatic. The turnaround time for test results is 20-30 minutes for antigen testing and 24-48 hours for PCR testing.

All staff members were provided multiple opportunities to be vaccinated. SASD partnered with Aurora and our employees were given priority at their vaccination clinics. Our InHealth Clinic (SASD Employee Clinic) had several weeks of vaccination slots available for our employees and their family members. We also communicated all of the vaccine opportunities in our community and the surrounding communities. Students ages 16 and older were provided access to vaccination clinics at two of our high schools. Students ages 12 and older were provided access to a vaccination clinic on May 17, 2021 at Horace Mann Middle School. In partnership with a local healthcare provider, additional onsite vaccination clinics were held for 5-11 year olds in December/January. Additional clinics may be held later in the year.

New staff and unvaccinated staff have been given vaccination information through local health care partners and County Public Health.

When circumstances require specific policies or procedures designed to protect the health and safety of students, 504 and IEP teams will determine if modifications and/or reasonable accommodations are needed for individual students with disability-related issues. The SASD teams consisting of case managers, school nurses, teaching staff, etc. and work collaboratively with students and parents to ensure proper accommodations.

The CDC recommends that all decisions about implementing school-based strategies should be made locally, collaborating with local health officials who can help determine the level of transmission in the community. The SASD continues to work with County Public Health to implement mitigating strategies for the safety of students and staff.

The District will provide for continuity of services as follows:

Student Academic Needs

The Sheboygan Area School District has implemented the following to ensure continuity of services:

• K-12 summer school program to assist with academic recovery.
• Full-time, in-person instruction beginning the fall of 2021, with limited exception.
• Additional instructional personnel has been added to staffing to implement further academic recovery efforts in core curriculum areas.
• Optional virtual instruction model for all levels.
• Adopted Lexia and ALEKs for skill gap remediation and acceleration.
• Free before and after school care for elementary families.

Student Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs

The District implemented the b.e.s.t screener for all elementary students and Panorama survey for grades 3-12 to identify needs. The students have access to professional therapy services through the district's PATH program.

Other Student Needs (which may include student health and food services)

Food services will continue to provide meals under the community provision as long as USDA continues the allowance. Meals will be provided for summer school attendees as well as all eligible youth during the school year. Summer meals will be provided for summer school and all children age 18 and under through July 2, 2021. It is assumed that the USDA will continue community eligibility provision under the new school meal application.

Staff Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs

The District has provided staff with opportunities for social and emotional support through providing a speaker in 2020 from Mental Health of America speaking about Resiliency, bringing in a representative from the Employee Assistance Program during 2020 and 2021 giving an overview about the available support and services. We also offered Self Care Challenges in 2020 and 2021 where employees could earn points for their Wellness program by taking care of themselves. The staff’s social, emotional, and mental health needs may also be addressed through the direct services of the Employee Assistance Program provided through the District. The District’s Wellness Office provided 24/7 on-call COVID support during the 2020-2021 school year to help people navigate through their COVID situation. This helped with staff’s emotional well-being because they were not getting that support from the County Health Department.

Other Staff Needs

The District followed the Federal law of Families First Coronavirus Response Act and offered Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) and Emergency Family and Medical Expansion Act (EFMLA). The District extended the Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) through June, 2021 which was beyond the Federal Law requirement. This allows our employees to continue to get paid for being away from work due to COVID and not have to use their own sick leave. The District enacted COVID pay for 2021-2022 school year again. The District also hired a full-time sub for each of our buildings to provide continuity of coverage when staff members are out due to COVID.

The Sheboygan Area School District will periodically review and, as needed, revise the plan for the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services. The plan will be reviewed at least every six months, and the school system will seek and take into account public input during the review process. Plan revisions will address updated CDC and County Public Health guidance on safely reopening schools if any are issued.

The Sheboygan Area School District has taken the following steps to make its plan available to the public:

• The plan is posted at http://www.sheboygan.k12.wi.us.
• A feedback form is available on the district website (located below the draft plan). A direct link to the feedback form is below.
• The plan is available in multiple languages through the use of our web provider powered by Google Translate. The plan is available in more than ten languages.
• The plan was shared at the Sheboygan Area School District Board of Education meetings on January 25th and February 8th, 2022. An opportunity for public comment was available during the January 25th, 2022 Board meeting.
• Upon request, a parent who is an individual with a disability as defined by the ADA may be provided with the plan in an alternative format accessible by contacting our district office.

Public Comment - ESSER III and Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plans