Oak Creek-Franklin Preparing For Return To School In Fall

OAK CREEK, WI — School officials in Oak Creek say the start of school in the fall will look different, given the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, and are preparing three models for how education will look.

District officials said they want to be prepared for any situation — especially if state or local health orders require a partial or full school system shutdown.

According to the district, officials are working on plans for a face-to-face model, a virtual-learning model, and a hybrid model of the two.

Based on a letter sent to parents on July 1, the hybrid and virtual-learning models would be ready to go in the event schools are forced to close upon government orders.

"Given the possibility that we could face intermittent closure of our sites or individual quarantines of our kids. If you can--and we realize may not be possible for everyone--we encourage families to consider tentative temporary plans in the event of intermittent school closures or quarantine," Superintendent Dan Unertl wrote on July 1 in a letter to families.

Here are the three models in brief:

100 percent face-to-face learning: All students in school, safety and disinfection guidelines in place.

Hybrid learning: Should we be ordered closed, pivot to virtual learning for individual or groups of students, for a limited time.

100 percent virtual learning: Schools ordered closed for all students and virtual learning commences immediately.