First COVID-19 case in Menomonie school district, possible changes coming

In today's COVID-19 report, Menomonie Schools Administrator Joe Zydowski reports that the district has had its first confirmed case of COVID-19 since school opened. The Dunn County COVID dashboard was updated today, and now reflects that the burden level for Dunn County is high and that the trend is now increasing. The county has had 86 new cases within the past two weeks, mostly from UW-Stout. 

Because the COVID-19 status in the county is deteriorating the district will be making some changes next week in an attempt to lower the burden on contact tracing in the county and to keep students safe. Currently all K-8 classes in the county are set up to maintain a minimum distance between students of 6 feet, but approximately a third of the high school classes do not maintain that distance. The district is attempting to make use of alternative spaces and making other changes to have all students space by 6 feet by Monday. 

If the number of cases continues to accelerate in the county, or if there are large outbreaks of cases in the schools, the district may need to move to a blended learning model or full virtual learning as outlined in the district's instructional model (as attached below). 

In better news, the school district has set guidelines for attendance at sports and other district events. As announced at Monday's school board meeting, outdoor sports events will have a maximum of 50 attendees, and indoor events will have a maximum of 25.

According to Zydowsky the current plan for the district also includes requiring masks for all students through the end of the semester even though the governor's current masking order expires at the end of September.