Update from the Mequon-Thiensville School District | Friday, February 26, 2021
Responsible Return & COVID-19 Update
As the Mequon-Thiensville School District continues to consider our current and future instructional environments, we are committed to providing timely communication with all stakeholders. Please review the following updates as we work to enhance the educational experience for each of our students.
The MTSD is committed to the academic achievement and growth of each student.
Educators across the Mequon-Thiensville School District are committed to ensuring the growth and achievement of each of our students. We know the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the academic, social, and emotional growth of our children. Using the data that is available to us, we continue to actively seek ways to improve our students’ outcomes, and enhance the teaching and learning environment for our students and staff members.
The MTSD is committed to the safety and wellbeing of students and staff members.
The health, safety, and wellbeing of each of our students and staff members remain a top priority in providing an educational environment where students can succeed. Beyond our efforts to ensure our physical buildings and operating procedures reflect a safe place to learn and grow, we are committed to the wellbeing of our students, understanding that education must address every facet of a child’s being.
School operating procedures and instructional scenarios will change as we continue throughout the school year.
We are committed to improving the educational environment for our students and staff members, where we are able. This week, District leaders shared preliminary details with the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department for a new instructional scenario that provides students more movement and encounters with adults, and our educators with additional time to focus on the needs of each student. This improved instructional scenario - Instructional Scenario B - maintains a focus on mitigating risk associated with the spread of the COVID-19 virus and includes all mitigation measures currently in place in our Responsible Return Operating Plan. 

The most significant change in the proposed instructional scenario is the bell schedule our students and staff members currently function within.
  • At the elementary level, students will travel to their specials instructors, for example having the ability to work in the art and music rooms, respectively. 
  • At the middle school level, students will travel to their elective courses and have more regular in-person interaction with their core teachers.
  • At the high school level, students will travel to each of their five courses, every day, returning to the five-periods-a-day bell schedule. 

Distance learning will still be available, and continue uninterrupted for our students currently enrolled in the program.

With the burden of COVID-19 continuing to decrease in our community, exposure within our school buildings has also significantly lessened over the last several weeks. In an effort to better understand the risk associated with COVID-19 for the MTSD community, our work with local health officials is focused on the decrease in community spread, minimal exposure to COVID-19 within our buildings, and the positive rates of availability for our students and staff members.
The MTSD is guided by the principle that research, assessment, and measurement must inform decision-making and accountability.
As an organization, we have managed the COVID-19 pandemic with the use of data to inform decision-making, and at this point in the school year, we have more information available to us than ever before. With insight made available to us through updated guidance from local, state, and national health officials, we have maintained alignment with what is considered best practices, from a public health perspective. And, from an educational perspective, we know we have to do more. Our data is showing that our students are not growing at the rates they did pre-pandemic and counselors and social and emotional coaches are supporting the needs of students in increased numbers. As a school community, our expectations are high for our students, and their success this school year is essential.
We will continue to keep all stakeholders informed as we work with the local health department on how and when we are able to move forward.

Thank you for your ongoing flexibility and partnership as we navigate this pandemic together.