MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Public Schools will see a slight shift in COVID-19 protocols moving forward.
In a late night special meeting of the board on Thursday, members took suggestions from the administration and modified them before taking a vote. The administration Health & Safety Committee says they turned to the CDC and other school districts around the country for guidance.
Here are the changes the board agreed to:
- Reduce virtual learning period to five days from 10 after a 3% positivity rate among school population. But they voted to keep the 14 day rolling period rather than reducing it.
- Expand student testing and effort for parental consent for testing
- Campaign to support more student vaccinations
- Make no other changes until the administration submits a detailed testing plan at the March 20th school board Meeting.
People on both sides of the issue spoke during the meeting, and some asked that no changes be made yet.
“Now is not the time to be lessening any protocol, if not making them more strict. We're going into the third year of this and we're trying to get beyond this. We're trying to get over the hump and we're still in this” said parent Sean Staples.
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MPS student Devon Pawlak was in favor of reducing some of the time periods and changing the protocols.
“COVID is here to stay and tonight’s board action is a timely and important recognition of this fact," he said. "No virus can change the rights of us the students to a stable and high quality education. Tonight's actions are crucial.”
Not up for discussion Thursday night was the district’s mask requirement. The board will meet again in March, potentially changing more protocols.