Wisconsin Rapids schools announce tentative date for return to 5-day in-person learning for secondary students
Alan HovorkaWISCONSIN RAPIDS – Middle and high school students in the Wisconsin Rapids Public School District could return to in-person learning five days a week later this month.
Lincoln High School and Wisconsin Rapids Area Middle School students may see the schedule change as early as April 26, Superintendent Craig Broeren announced Thursday. The return to full in-person classes depends on the spread of COVID-19 in schools following spring break, Broeren said in a letter to parents.
Elementary students in Wisconsin Rapids are already in class five days a week.
The district began four-day in-person classes at the middle and high schools on March 15. Broeren said in his letter the district has seen cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus since starting four-day in-person classes but that changes in cases are not significant. The district implemented a voluntary testing surveillance program to monitor COVID-19 spread in schools as part of the return to four-day in-person learning.
"Based on what we currently know, it can take two weeks or more for the virus to incubate and produce positive cases which makes a full return on April 26 a logical time to implement the change," Broeren wrote in his letter. "If that plan needs to change based upon local circumstances, I will be sure to communicate that in as proactive a fashion as possible."
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Contact reporter Alan Hovorka at 715-345-2252 or ahovorka@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ajhovorka.