APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Appleton Area School District is now offering in-person learning. The youngest learners through 4th graders are fully in-person. Middle and high schoolers are in a blended model.
For many, like veteran crossing guard Dennis Murphy, January isn’t exactly synonymous with “back to school.”
“It’s a little slower than I thought, but I’m anxious to be back, it’s colder than I thought.”
But, it’s the first week many students in the Appleton Area School District are back in the classroom since March.
And Ed Rathsack was there to pick up his grandson.
“He’s very happy to be back in school and upbeat and happy about it.”
Appleton’s Superintendent Judy Baseman tells FOX 11 it was the right time to bring their students back.
“We felt we would be past that post holiday bump in terms of community spread. We also thought it was a natural start given the semester ending and new start to the new semester in terms of students and that transition.”
However, families are still worried about the impacts of virtual learning.
Cristy Burke said, “the days I could work from home and be home with her to walk her through everything it worked better, but with her having a reading disability and the virtual learning being almost all reading it was very slow going, very problematic.
FOX 11 asked Baseman, “are you worried about the way virtual learning may have um impacted students’ progress?”
“We continue to monitor, we have seen some gaps for students so we know we’re going to fast forward, be providing extra support for kids because we know we have some ground to make up,” said Baseman, “it varies between each students.”
But, from students to crossing guards, many are excited to be back.
“Happy to be back? Yes this is my thing, gets me up in the morning and gives me something to do,” said Murphy.
Appleton’s superintendent hopes this builds up to being back in person 100%.
Next week, the district will be hosting a work session with the board of education. They will be looking, in-depth at the data of students progress during virtual learning.
