November 2020

Muskego-Norway News NOVEMBER 2020 - Please Scroll Down to See Contents

COVID-19 Response, Reentry and Recovery Efforts

District staff continue to be vigilant in the effort to stay safe to stay open. We work to maintain physical distancing with colleagues and students, consistently wear and ensure students are wearing face coverings and accurately identify close contacts when a positive COVID-19 case is identified. DHS and CDC continue to recommend that students and staff who are symptomatic with COVID-19-like illness stay home (Checklist for Families). This greatly improves our ability to prevent widespread transmission in our schools, keeping students and staff who are participating in in-person instruction as safe as possible. Rapid isolation and quarantine practices are still the best tools available to schools to control transmission. Waukesha County Public Health Department places the duty of conducting contact tracing and informing parents of the need to isolate or quarantine students on the school district.

Waukesha County Health Department and County Executive are reporting their highest positive cases to date and are reaching their capacity with contact tracing efforts (see the Waukesha County letter and Waukesha County's COVID-19 website). Our school district has also seen an increase in the number of students and staff isolations due to a positive test result and quarantines due to a close contact. This has resulted in more students and some full classrooms having to transition to temporary distance learning. The wide community spread in Waukesha County continues to negatively impact student and staff absences in our schools which may force additional classrooms or a full school to transition to temporary distance learning. While we work to control transmissions in our schools through our commitment to mitigation measures and contact tracing, events and gatherings outside of school still impact our case data. As families, you can help ensure that we are able to offer in-person learning in our schools by limiting unnecessary interactions that result in increased transmission of the virus. With the upcoming holidays, please consider your plans. Staff, students and families who are in person need your help to ensure schools remain open for as long as possible. We need to all work together to make this a reality.

Friendly reminder that should we need to transition students to temporary distance learning, the decision is typically quick and without much advanced warning. Therefore, please have a back-up plan ready. Also, remember to use the Daily Checklist for Families each day and keep sick children home so as not to create a potential outbreak at school that may cause a classroom, a school or the district to move to temporary distance learning. For updates, please review the Parent Reentry FAQ and Learning Plans available on our website.

We are grateful for your partnership! Thank you for doing your part as we work to Stay Safe to Stay Open!

COVID-19 Metric Team

The COVID-19 Metric Team considers three main factors when determining whether to transition a full classroom, school or the district to temporary distance learning: 1) potential of transmission or spread of the disease within a school/classroom; 2) the number of quarantines in a particular classroom/school; 3) staff absence rate that rises above a point at which we are unable to effectively operate a school or the district. The district’s COVID-19 dashboard tracks and communicates staff and student positive COVID-19 cases and quarantines due to a close contact as well as our teacher fill rate. Historical data has been added to the dashboard so that we are able to show the increase/decrease in student and staff COVID-19 related absences over the previous three weeks.

Parent Satisfaction Fall Pulse Survey

Thank you to the parents who made time to complete the October satisfaction pulse survey. Leadership teams at each school made time to review their respective data and established strategic actions they would engage in to increase the overall satisfaction level of our parents. Be on the lookout for opportunities to provide feedback in the near future. The survey results from October are available to view.

Halloween 2020

Budget and Annual Meeting

At the School Board’s Annual Meeting two weeks ago, we shared with the public our district’s financial standings and our 2020-21 Eye on the Goal. The Annual Meeting booklet and presentation are available on the district’s website.

2021-22 School Calendar - Coming Soon

A DRAFT calendar will be brought forward to the School Board at our November 16 School Board meeting. Based on feedback, revisions will be made, with action to be taken at our December 14 School Board meeting. Please look to next month's message to parents for the 2021-22 calendar.

Internet Access Support Request

If you are unable to get access to the Internet, please fill out this form to place a formal request. In return a representative from MNS will reach out to you for more specific details. Please note that we have limited resources to provide access for staff and students as needed; filling out this form does not guarantee we can assist you.

WIAA Girls Tennis State Team Champions

Volunteer for Muskego-Norway School District

Why Volunteer?

Muskego-Norway School District cannot function to our full capacity without the help of our dedicated community. Our volunteer process makes it easy for parents, relatives, local businesses, or community members to pitch in and make a huge difference for our school district. Volunteers are of such high value to our system and are appreciated by the district more than we can even express.

Do you have the desire to directly help students & teachers? Would you like to grow your skills and familiarize yourself with the school environment? Do you want to give back to the community that you are a part of? If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of the questions above, we encourage you to apply to become a volunteer in our district! You will serve as role models, make a direct impact on our community’s youth, and support the work of our teachers and other support staff throughout the district. We thank you for your consideration and look forward to seeing you soon!

How to Apply to be a Volunteer

Fill out the application. You will put in all of your information, agree to our policies, and then submit your application for approval, which might take a couple of days.
If approved, you will get an email that will walk you through the steps to create an account on Raptor Volunteer software.
A username and password will be provided for access to the volunteer portal.

Robotics Club at MLMS

Muskego-Norway School District Annual Asbestos Notification

2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR

Under AHERA (Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act), all primary and secondary schools are required to develop and implement a plan for managing all building materials which contain asbestos. Included in the AHERA Act is the requirement to annually notify all workers and building occupants (or their guardians) of asbestos-related activities.

Beginning in 1988, all buildings owned, leased, or “under the control of” the School District were inspected by EPA accredited inspectors, with building material samples analyzed by an independent laboratory. Based on the inspection, the School District prepared and the state approved a comprehensive management plan for managing the asbestos.

Where the asbestos-containing materials are found, the District has in place an Operations and Maintenance program.

The District has accomplished the following compliance mandates regarding the administration of asbestos in school buildings:

Environmental Management Consulting, Inc. (EMC) was contracted to be the school’s consultant for asbestos for the school year.
The District is continuing with the Operations and Maintenance Program as designed for the School District. This ensures that all asbestos materials are kept in good condition in good condition.
Periodic “surveillance” in each area containing asbestos has been completed every six months by our consultant. Also, the buildings are re-inspected by an accredited inspector every three years.
In the past year the District conducted the following asbestos removal activities: Flooring and mastic removal was completed in select locations at Lakeview Elementary to facilitate new flooring

All outside contractors shall contact the lead maintenance person before commencing work. Our goal at the District is to be in full compliance with asbestos regulations.

A copy of the Asbestos Management Plan is available for review by contacting the District Office. Questions related to this plan or any other asbestos concerns should be directed to Jeremiah Johnson, Director of Operations & HR at 262-971-1807.

Completed mosaic at Lakeview

Conversation with the Superintendent

The next Conversations with the Superintendent at the ESC is scheduled for noon on Monday, November 23 - 12:00 PM. If this date/time does not fit your schedule and you are interested in meeting, please contact kelly.thompson@muskegonorway.org to schedule an individual meeting.