OCONTO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Oconto Unified School District is closing its doors the next few days, hoping to get its more than 1,000 students healthy.
A number of individual schools in our area have closed because of illness this winter, but this time the entire Oconto district is shutting down.
Students in Oconto are being kept away today and Monday, while staff disinfects the city’s three public schools.
Parents and grandparents who were picking up children at Oconto Elementary School on Thursday say they’re perfectly fine with calling off class to try to get everyone healthy.
“Maybe that will stop the flu bug from hitting everybody repeatedly,” said Jo Farrar, a grandparent. “Even the parents are getting sick and they can’t work.”
“I was talking to my daughter the other day and she said a lot of kids were missing from class, so I actually think it was a good idea,” said Kristen Edgar, a parent.
Emily Miller, the district’s superintendent, tells FOX 11 30% of elementary students were out with a variety of illnesses on Wednesday, marking the final dagger in the district’s decision.
“We have a protocol we go through that would set ourselves to have some talking points around 20% of our student population being out for absenteeism and we were starting to talk about that already on Tuesday.”
The district has decided to let extracurriculars go on as scheduled. Miller says the only activities happening are at the high school level where absences haven’t been as high this week.
“But because we are a small district and we have a lot of families that have siblings that are younger, we made a decision to do a district closing versus just one school.”
She says the decision to close today and Monday was made in consultation with the local health department and the district nurse.
“They felt with the virus that they’re seeing that the fourth day would really help.”
“I know it’s hard on some parents because they have to find babysitters and stuff, but if more and more kids are getting sick I think it’s a smart move,” said Edgar.
Teachers will be in briefly today to help disinfect. They will be back on Monday.
