January Monthly Update with Monogue
MCPASD Families,
We hope you had a relaxing winter break spent with friends and family. We are ready to take the new year in stride, and hope you are too! With that being said, we have a few things to cover, so let’s get started.
Our new bus routes start on January 3rd. We had over 1,000 families opt-out of transportation which helped our team condense a handful of routes and alleviate overload with our system. We hope the new bus routes are serving your family well, but if you have any questions please submit a transportation helpdesk ticket for assistance.
We try to be as transparent as possible, especially with the constant changes due to the pandemic. These next few weeks will be challenging, and we will do all that we can to keep our schools open. Know that our staff is doing exceptional and extraordinary things in order to do this.
Every day in our schools, our principals shift staff within and across buildings to cover many unfilled absences. The impact of COVID on our staff, their children, and our students is real and is taking a toll.
Please continue to be patient and understanding as our staff does their best to keep up with daily challenges. We recognize that our staff is putting in 110% effort. Thank you, everyone, for your incredible work. While our struggles are not yet over, it is inspiring to know that we have such a fantastic staff who are willing to do whatever is asked of them to keep our schools open.
We thank our community, employees and students for continuing to follow our covid mitigation protocols - which include universal masking, vaccinations and boosting, adhering to quarantine and isolation guidance, and keeping symptomatic children home.
Our district, just like Public Health Madison & Dane County(PHMDC), will be adopting the new CDC mitigation guidance procedures. With these new quarantine and isolation guidelines, we will no longer be providing concurrent instruction for students who are at home due to isolation or quarantine.
According to the guidance, the time for isolation following a positive COVID-19 test is now five days. Our district remains under an emergency health order from Public Health Madison Dane County and masks will be required in all district facilities through February 1, 2022.
Individuals can stop isolating after five days as long as their symptoms are improving and they have been fever-free for 24 hours. The CDC states that the majority of COVID transmission generally happens in the 1-2 days before the start of symptoms and the 2-3 days after.
Individuals who are either unvaccinated or individuals who are due for a booster but have not yet received one, will now need to quarantine for five days, followed by five days of wearing a mask when around others. Fully vaccinated or boosted individuals do not need to quarantine, instead must wear a mask around others
A couple of other covid updates:
- We have updated our 2021-22 Parent Information Guide that details our new mitigation protocols, which have changes to band, eating, and athletics, to name a few.
- As a reminder, our guidance documents have also been updated. These documents will let caregivers know what to do if your child is sick, has tested positive for Covid, or is a close contact.
- Our West Middleton and Park testing sites continue to be closed until further notice due to staffing shortages. Accelerated Labs is hopeful these sites will be up and running by next week. We will send out communication once they have opened.
If you need other testing options, please click here.
Moving on to some lighter news….
Congratulations to the Middleton High School Green Team for being recognized as part of the 2021 Dane County Climate Champions for their efforts to fight climate change on a local scale. They worked alongside the City of Middleton Sustainability Committee and St. Bernard Catholic Church Creation Care Team to help Middleton residents switch from incandescent light bulbs to LED lights. Together they distributed almost 2,000 LED light bulbs and recycled more than 2,300 CFL light bulbs.
Congratulations to Northside students Maggie and Brady from Mrs. Hellenbrand’s class for winning the Wisconsin State Journal Helping Hands contest! She has been encouraging her students to enter the Helping Hands contest for the last 17 years!
In order to participate, each student writes a letter to WSJ explaining how they could use the $200 donation to help someone in need during the winter season. Maggie will be giving a donation to a family who recently lost their family member to COVID-19. Congratulations once again and we are so happy to see our students lending a helping hand.
Local news channel NBC 15 was awarded an Emmy at the Chicago-Midwest Emmy Awards for their coverage on "class during COVID" at West Middleton Elementary! Their segments featured Kindergarten teacher Amy Aschenbeck as she went above and beyond to connect with her students during the online learning period of the 2020-21 school year. Congratulations NBC 15! Thank you for spotlighting the awesome efforts of our staff.
Before we sign off, I would like to take a moment to remember our beloved teacher, Kristie Konsoer, who recently passed away after her strong battle against breast cancer. We express our sincere condolences to the Konsoer family and loved ones. Thank you for 14 years of touching the hearts of our students.
This has been another Monthly update with Monogue. Thank you for listening and we hope you continue to follow all the exciting things happening at MCPASD that make it a great place to learn and grow. See you next time!