Superintendent's Message
Dear MCPASD Families,
With gratitude for our amazing community, we look ahead to the 2021-2022 school year! While the pandemic is not over, it appears that a school year full of familiar faces and routines awaits all of us in September We will take the lessons learned from this past school year into the next and create welcoming and academically enriching environments in our schools and our virtual settings for all of our students. We are very much looking forward to being all together very soon.
We are intentionally focusing on a small number of goals and initiatives during the upcoming school year We want our staff to focus on welcoming students back into our buildings, helping them re-establish relationships and routines We want our students to feel safe, loved and valued, and engaged academically as we begin the next school year.
We are committed to helping make the 2021-2022 school year positive and productive for students, families, and our staff. We appreciate our School Board and the leadership they provide and for our families who entrust their children to our care Thank you for your ongoing support of our district and our schools!
Very fondly,
Dana E. Monogue, Ph.D. Superintendent
Why is our district putting COVID-19 protocols in place for the new school year?
Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District will put mitigation protocols in place because we believe it is our ethical and moral obligation to continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, care for our most vulnerable students and staff, and keep everyone as safe as possible.
The district's operations will likely continue largely without interruption if we continue to require masks in all of our schools. Our district leaders are in constant contact with all Dane County area school districts. Most are considering a similar approach to our COVID-19 protocols.
We have a significant amount of our data to learn from. Since the pandemic began, we have had very few cases of student-to-student transmission in our schools.
Our mitigation efforts have been effective, and we want to do what we can to make sure our schools can remain open.
Our current vaccination rates are strong in our student population. Nearly 74% of vaccine-eligible children in our district have completed their vaccination series. Approximately 87% of our high school students are vaccinated, 76% of our middle school students, and 64% of our elementary students are fully vaccinated. These numbers are well above Dane County averages. 91% of our staff have submitted proof of vaccination, and those who have not will be getting weekly COVID tests.
What medical advisors is MCPASD working with to determine our protocols?
Our district receives guidance from several sources, including:
Public Health Madison Dane County
The Centers for Disease Control
The American Academy of Pediatrics
The Pediatric Infectious Disease Society
MCPASD works with several medical advisors from the University of Wisconsin Hospitals
Dr. Ellen Wald
Dr. Greg Demuri
Dr. Sabrina Butteris
Masks will be required indoors for all persons in all district facilities until further notice If staff are in an office or room by themselves, masks are optional When eating/drinking, masks do not need to be worn
Masks will be required for all while riding district vehicles (buses, vans, suburbans) per order of the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Masking while outdoors is optional
5 days regardless of
CONTACT
TRACING
Our district is moving to "crisis mode" in contact tracing efforts in all buildings This means that staff will send home classroom notifications, where possible, alerting parents of a positive case in their child's classroom and asking them to carefully monitor symptoms. If symptoms appear, your student should isolate and get tested
For additonal guidance on your child being idenified as a close contact, click here.
The district is offering free and convenient drive-through COVID-19 testing options for students, students’ household members (household members can only be tested if the student is present and getting tested at the same time), and staff members (this does not include household members of staff at this time )
Click here for information on testing sites
We will maintain an isolation room in each school as well.
TESTING
CLEANING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Our regular cleaning protocols will remain in place with extra attention to high-touch point areas.
We no longer need to ensure individual access to materials and will move to a “common sense approach” to sharing of instructional materials.
BAND
Bell covers will be used on appropriate instruments. Students who play instruments with bell covers will wear masks when not playing.
Students returning from isolation should not play a wind instrument until the end of their 5 day masking requirement.
We will continue to message that we will distance when and where it is possible and that in the vast majority of cases, we will not be able to ensure 3 feet of social distance.
DISTANCING
Students will eat in cafeterias for lunch and immediately put masks on when they finish eating
All Elementary schools have assigned seating, students are distanced and tables are sanitized after every use
Middle schools allow one grade level at a time and sanitize tables after use Students are also distanced
The high schools have adjusted 9th and 10th-grade lunches to operate during opposite times, limiting the number of students in the lunch spaces MHS concourse, gymnasium, and other shared areas are open for lunch to allow more social distancing during lunch Tables are also sanitized between eating
Our schools continue to have HEPA filters in all our cafeterias which help reduce exposure to the virus in indoor environments where students eat and drink Breakfast routines may occur in classrooms
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL & FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS
We will not approve international travel nor foreign exchange student programs until further notice.
ATHLETICS & ACTIVITIES
All athletes must wear their masks during practice and games, with the exception of swimmers when on deck and actively swimming
Masks will be required indoors for participants and spectators for all athletic events and activities Masks will be optional for outdoor athletic events and activities
Third and fourth-grade swim classes will be temporarily paused to avoid contact during travel to the MHS swimming pool
All field trips that involve putting students on buses have been canceled or rescheduled.
We will not approve international travel nor foreign exchange student programs until further notice
Overnight trips that are necessitated due to the location of student competitions will be approved with the assurance of adherence to mitigation protocols