Wauwatosa Schools To Go Virtual Until After Thanksgiving Break

WAUWATOSA, WI— Teacher shortages and increased coronavirus cases has led the Wauwatosa School District to go to virtual learning. The Wauwatosa School District will shift all Phase Into Learning students to virtual instruction from Monday, Nov. 23 through Friday, Dec. 4, according to a letter from the Wauwatosa School District.

Students will follow their hybrid schedule during this time. Phase Into Learning students will return to the hybrid phase on Monday, Dec. 7.

Across the district there have been challenges due to quarantines and positive cases of coronavirus among teachers. These challenges are magnified by a nationwide substitute teacher shortage, according to the letter.

"Although our schools have done an outstanding job executing their backup plans and securing classroom coverage when needed, these backup plans are not ideal, long-term solutions for delivering high-quality instruction. In several schools we are one person away from not being able to operate.

"It is our goal to make students’ synchronous learning days as impactful as possible. However, this becomes challenging when we must identify individuals to fill in for our staff in quarantine or those who are too ill to teach," the district's letter said.

The district's letter also asks for people who are celebrating Thanksgiving with other family members and friends to self-quarantine, monitor for symptoms and get a coronavirus test if necessary.

"We believe this time away from in-person instruction will reduce the number of students and staff who need to be quarantined, allowing us to more effectively staff full classrooms and keep our schools operating in the hybrid phase. We encourage our educational community to use sound judgement over the Thanksgiving holiday. We must all do our part to keep our schools open and reduce the impact of quarantines on our operations," the district said.