Same virus, different plans for public, private schools in Oshkosh area

Graphic from Wisconsin Dpt. of Health and Services

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to rise by the day in Wisconsin, prompting many of its schools to resort to virtual learning.

Near the beginning of this school year, students at Oshkosh’s four main high schools held mixed emotions regarding their chances of showing up to the school’s doors on day one. The Oshkosh Area School District, connecting West and North, as well as Lourdes Academy and Valley Christian School produced their own plans based on new information on the ever changing status of COVID-19 in Wisconsin.

Total cases in Wisconsin have grown exponentially from March of this year, according to a report updated daily by the Wisconsin Department of Health and Services. For students of each school, these numbers provoked uncertainty over their upcoming academic year, particularly after an unfulfilling end to 2019-2020.

With the pandemic, the American people became unnerved and distressed. Before the disease could take over more lives, schools were shut down, and students dealt with the inevitability of the decision that came with the springtime. 

“I didn't like virtual class, but last March, no one had a choice; you had to do it,” an anonymous Lourdes student said.

According to North Assistant Principal Tyler Umentum, the end of the previous school year was a sudden issue for everyone.

“I feel like it was a big wrench thrown at everybody, not just students, but teachers, administrators,” he said. “Anybody involved with the school system struggled.”

The common opinion was that last year’s conclusion had turned sour, and students were dreading their school’s decision for the succeeding year. And now that the new school year has arrived, precautions taken vary across the Oshkosh schools.

Masks, of course, were the most common feature implemented in all of the schools, despite hesitation from some of the common population. Umentum explains that a mask mandate was relatively easy to execute.

“We only had maybe a few students who were not okay with wearing masks,” he said. “Once explained to the students that wearing the mask is not about you, it’s about protecting the people around you too, students have abided by that a lot more.”

Lourdes Academy and Valley Christian School both built in a mask policy and have remained open for the majority of the ongoing year, the only exception being Valley Christian’s recent week of virtual learning. Many of the measures took a different direction to public schools in Oshkosh; Valley Christian senior Will Simpson went to school semi-normally in a smaller setting.

“I think they tried to make things as normal as possible without being straight-up unsafe,” he said. “They tried to separate the middle schoolers from the high schoolers, because generally we’d be in the same hallway because it is a K-12 school. A couple weeks into the school year we went into ‘Level 2,’ which basically means, even if you had an exemption, you had to wear a mask in the hallways.”

Simpson believes he understands why Valley Christian has been able to persevere with its own safety measures amidst the pandemic.

“I believe they were effective, considering how far we got into the school year without having any confirmed cases at our school,” he said. “It helps that we’re a lot smaller than other schools; we’ve got 400 people or something in our school. I think they did a pretty good job because people would self-quarantine if they thought they had COVID-19.”

Valley Christian had its own silver lining; an attempt to bring back normalcy. 

“We were able to have a homecoming, even though it wasn’t as much of a homecoming,” Simpson said. “We didn't have a dance or anything, it was like an all outdoor thing, but we were able to have some semblance of senior year stuff.”

Lourdes Academy also maintained a likeness to other high schools in regards to new practices, particularly focusing their attention and catering to the individual student.

“Our temps are taken before we enter school,” anonymous student John Doe said. “We are required to wear masks at all times except lunch and during our 15 minute mask break outside. This year the classes were completely restructured so students are not moving from classroom to classroom so much. Instead of having each class everyday, now each class is every other day but for a longer period of time.”

Lourdes Academy Middle and High School Principal David Mikesell was able to help coordinate such measures.

“A lot of it was focused on cleaning, sanitizing, and social distancing; being a smaller school we were able to really look closely at our facilities and say ‘okay, how can we maximize on the social distancing?’” he said.

Doe appreciates the effectiveness of the measures.

“If anyone is exposed to anyone that tested positive, they have to switch to virtual learning until two or three weeks passes,” he said. “Because there are so few students in each class, the measures can be effective.”

West and North, both under similar policies, had near-identical measures to combat COVID-19. Both schools were partitioned by a hybrid plan formulated by the Oshkosh Area School District and took extra care to ensure students were distanced from each other. North senior Braden Cooper lived the plan first hand.

“We were in the hybrid scheduling system so we had ‘A’ and ‘B’ days, so if you were in group ‘A’ you were virtual on ‘A’ day and in school on ‘B’ days,” he said. “There were floorplans so some hallways you could only go one direction or the other direction. Some hallways you could go both directions, they had some things blocked off, and stuff like that.”

Students had mixed opinions on how comfortable they felt in the district’s schools.

“I don’t know how many cases we had,” West junior Bryce Joel said. “We still had cases, and we still had to have 200 kids in quarantine, so if you’re risking the health and safety of your students, then something is wrong with the model.”

Some, such as Cooper, felt the opposite, praising the district’s efforts.

“I know teachers had to quarantine and everything because they did contact tracing, so I think the contact tracing was pretty good,” he said. “I think they worked hard to communicate with us as best they could.”

As of October 23, confirming the suspicions of some, all schools under the OASD transitioned to completely virtual learning, a method which now seems indefinite. While the school year has begun turbulently for some, there is a common feeling for everyone working with or attending the schools not only in Oshkosh, but throughout America.

“I think it’s something that everybody saw as an inconvenience right now,” Umentum said. “But we’re doing this so we can get back to our old normal as soon as possible.”

By Marty Bond

October 30th, 2020

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue 2