Holmen Schools to return to virtual learning

HOLMEN, Wis. (WKBT)- The Holmen School District will make the switch back to virtual learning starting Monday.

Students and staff at the elementary and middle schools returned to in-person learning earlier this week.

“The safety of our staff, students and families remains our priority, therefore, our last day of in-person learning will be this Friday, October 30, 2020. We are saddened for our students and staff who have worked so hard to prepare to return to in-person learning this week,” said Administrator Dr. Kristin Mueller in a letter sent to the district.

“During our short time back in person, we have seen great success among students. While we were excited to have all staff and students return to their school buildings, these past few days have shown that we are unable to adequately staff our classrooms and buildings. While we worked preventatively and placed permanent subs in our school buildings to help provide coverage, we still did not have enough day-to-day subs to cover the number of absences.  In addition, as we continue to monitor the measures that were established to determine when we could return to school, we find these numbers to be on an increasingly upward trend. We have seen this in our own school-based data with cases growing that impact our buildings. While the majority of cases did not have any school-based exposure, the numbers impacting our school community grew this week. This current trend anticipates we will not be back in person any time soon,” the letter went on to say.

The district will no longer provide a weekly update on the mode of learning, instead an announcement will made only when a switch can be anticipated.

The Onalaska School District also announced Wednesday that it would be switching back to virtual learning on Monday.

The La Crosse School District extended virtual learning through at least Nov. 15.

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