Classes for MPS will stay virtual to Jan. 18
School board calls for citywide mask mandate
Milwaukee Public Schools will continue virtual learning until at least Jan. 18, school board members voted Thursday night, as they also called upon city leaders to issue a citywide mask mandate to curb surging cases of COVID-19.
“I don’t think any of us thought that we would be having this discussion again,” said Superintendent Keith Posley, who recommended the extension. “Unfortunately, based on the high COVID-19 positive numbers, we are seeing it and we must take a look at our approach for a safe learning environment.”
The district transitioned to virtual learning after winter break Tuesday due to high numbers of staff testing positive. When the move was announced, the district set a goal of returning to in-person learning Jan. 10.
As of Thursday night, the district reported over 1,000 students and staff tested positive in the past seven days, including 187 on Thursday. The district’s dashboard doesn’t specify how many were staff and how many were students.
Before this week, weekly case totals for MPS students and staff had not surpassed a high of 445 in December. Before December, the highest weekly count this school year was 284 in September. Weekly case counts had fallen as low as the 80s in mid-fall.
The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association had pushed for virtual learning this week and on Thursday urged school board members to keep the district virtual while many staff recovered from COVID.
“There are not simply enough healthy workers available to safely reopen our schools,” MTEA President Amy Mizialko said. “MPS had a serious staffing shortage before omicron. And there’s no margin, and there’s no wiggle room left in any MPS school.”
As part of their motion to continue virtual learning until Jan. 18, members also directed the district’s Office of Board Governance to send an urgent communication to city officials requesting a mask mandate for all buildings and events open to the public.
The only board member to vote against the motion was Megan O’Halloran. She had suggested the district only close specific schools with a certain percentage of positive cases. She argued many schools appeared to have caseloads of less than 3% of the population, which is the standard the district has used all school year to
transition a school to virtual learning.
“I think we are making a really broad decision without drilling down on the data,” O’Halloran said.
Other board members argued that the Jan. 18 date being consistent across MPS would give the district time to clean buildings, restock low supplies such as masks and cleaning products, and organize more vaccination opportunities.
The move comes as cases are surging among children like never before in Milwaukee due to the omicron variant with 1,000 county residents ages 18 and under testing positive between Dec. 29 and Jan. 4.
Vaccinations have helped many of those testing positive to recover at home without hospitalization. Hospital officials have said most of the patients requiring hospitalization are not vaccinated. The 0-4 age group, too young to be vaccinated, account for more of the hospitalized children than any other age span in Milwaukee County.
In the city of Milwaukee, as of Wednesday, about 8% of children ages 5-11 were fully vaccinated, along with 41% of those 12-19.
Other schools throughout the state and country have also made transitions to virtual learning in recent days. The Madison Metropolitan School District set a goal of returning in person Monday after going virtual following winter break due to high COVID levels in the community.
While Dane County has extended its mask mandate until February, Milwaukee officials have not heeded calls from the MTEA and others to implement a local requirement. School board member Jilly Gokalgandhi raised the point Thursday to Heather Paradis, who represented the Milwaukee Health Department at the school board meeting.
“When will the city implement a mask mandate to help us out to make sure that our kids can go to school safely?” Gokalgandhi asked.
Paradis echoed previous comments from Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson that any mandate should come as an ordinance from the Common Council. “That may be a solution that is coming,” Paradis said.
Asked when she thought omicron cases would peak and start to decline, Paradis said she was hopeful the city would see the peak in the next couple weeks.
Staff say protocols falling short
After Posley made his recommendation Thursday, staff who spoke during the public hearing painted a bleak picture of staffing shortages, contact tracing challenges and COVID safety measures falling short.
Teachers said they and their students’ families had to buy cleaning supplies and clean their own classrooms.
“Desks are not sanitized unless it’s by myself or by my students, with the Clorox wipes that are purchased by myself and by my families,” MPS teacher Amanda McIlhone said. “Regular cleaning of high-touch areas is not happening. Many times our engineer is so busy we can’t get soap and toilet paper in our bathroom by the end of the day.”
Gokalgandhi said she was frustrated that the presentation from Posley and administrators was not as forthcoming about areas where the district was struggling.
“This presentation was supposed to be about what is the current situation and what are we going to do moving forward, and I’m not sure I heard much of that,” she said. “We’re at a point where we all need to be honest about what is going right and what is going wrong and where we need help from local and state officials.”
MPS administrators said they were working to fill vacancies for employees who clean buildings. Board members directed administrators to ensure cleaning supplies are available by the time inperson learning resumes.
Administrators also said they’d placed orders for 682,400 child-sized KN95 masks and over 1.3 million adult KN95 masks.
Staff also noted issues with testing, including that many students’ families have not provided consent for testing. MPS nurse Christine Scott said at one of her schools, just five out of 400 students had provided consent.
O’Halloran, who said she was unsure whether she’d signed the form for her own child in the district, suggested schools share consent forms again with parents.
Additionally, board members encouraged administrators to do more to encourage students to get vaccinated. Posley said Milwaukee Health Department staff were stretched due to the high demands at testing centers, limiting their availability to do vaccine clinics at MPS schools. While the health department will help with some clinics, Posley said he is seeking other vendors.
MPS opts not to shorten isolation times
Board members also discussed whether the district should shorten isolation requirements for those who test positive, from 10 days to the new CDC allowance of five days of isolation followed by five days of masking.
Scott and other staff who spoke at the meeting urged board members to maintain the 10-day requirement, noting that masking was inconsistent in the district.
“Our students are elbow to elbow at lunch time with masks off; therefore they are spreading this virus faster than we can keep up with the numbers,” Scott said. “We are in over our heads with a pandemic that we still don’t know enough about to make drastic decisions.”
Board members agreed that given the impossibility of keeping students fully masked, the district should maintain its 10-day standard.