While Etude Elementary School, part of the largest school district in Sheboygan County, was recently the subject of a mandatory masking move to curb a COVID-19 outbreak, it’s not the only school in the area having to deal with the coronavirus, and some less visible districts are having to work even harder than Sheboygan to control the spread.
Most school districts in the county offer some form of COVID-19 tracking dashboards, and nearly all show a recent peak of activity in early to mid November. Finding that information can be a challenge. Web searches for COVID-19 data in the Kohler Schools, for instance, come up empty on Google and other search engines, but can be found by navigating through the school website to health services, and finally to the COVID Positive case tracker. Even then care is required when interpreting the data. For example, while Kohler Elementary peaked at 10.4% illness rate on November 12, the actual total number of students affected so far this school year to date is only 15.
Cedar Grove-Belgium schools showed a more recent peak, with 15 active student cases and 26 student quarantines as of November 19th. Data wasn’t updated as usual this past Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday break.
While Etude Elementary, the only member of the Sheboygan area district affected, emerged from mandatory masking on Monday, Plymouth Schools are dealing with a significant number of cases, enough to require masking in four of its five buildings. During the peak week reported November 19th, 42 new positives were found with 33 infectious at the schools, and 30 new quarantines. That number had subsided only slightly last week to 35 new cases, 21 infectious and 20 quarantined. Given those numbers, the Plymouth School District has implemented mandatory masking at all 3 elementary schools and Riverview Middle School through December 22nd, hoping that students and staff can return in 2022 without the need to cover up.
Comments