MADISON (WKOW) -- Abundant Life Christian School was hosting its "Back-2-School Bootcamp" when Public Health Madison and Dane County issued Emergency Order #9, mandating a virtual start to the school year for third through 12th grades.
"It went from lots of smiles and excitement to a lot of tears and a lot of sadness," Barbara Wiers, the school's communications director, said.
Across the county in Middleton, students at St. Peter Catholic School had similar reactions, according to the school's principal, Kathi Klaas.
Klaas said she was caught off guard by the news, too.
"I was in shock," she said. "Why would they do that to us? Why would public health make this decision now?"
Both schools were set to start class on Tuesday, but as of Saturday afternoon, those plans might be changing.
"I'm guessing we may have to postpone our Tuesday start date," Klaas said. "If the decision was going to be made, it needed to give us more preparation time."
Klaas said one challenge her school is facing is the fact they have one teacher who has a combined second and third grade classroom. Under the order, half the students will be allowed to have in-person instruction, but the other half will have to learn virtually.
She said the school will most likely use a combination of recorded lessons and live virtual meetings to accommodate the split.
Wiers said classes at her school will start on Tuesday despite the last-minute format change.
She said PHMDC asked all schools to develop three plans over the summer: one for in-person learning, one hybrid model and one for virtual learning.
"We did all that work all summer long, put in all those hours, and all that planning is clearly not in vain," she said.
Both women acknowledged the school experience will not be the same for students who are learning completely virtually but said administrators and teachers have the same goals.
"We are here to teach," Wiers said. "How we do it may change, but what we do does not."
She continued, saying she is following the actions of Jesus in her reaction to the order.
"We honor those in authority over us, whether we sometimes like their decisions or not," Wiers said.
Klaas said she wishes public health officials had given schools the chance to put cleaning and social distancing measures in place before pulling the plug on in-person instruction.
"Give us a chance to prove we've created a safe environment," she said. "At least let us create an environment that prepares [students] to be successful as distance learners if that's what we have to do."
Klaas said she expected to eventually have to pivot to virtual instruction, but she thought teachers and students would have some in-person learning first.
Infectious diseases expert Ajay Sethi said the switch to virtual school might slow the spread of COVID-19 because of how children older than 10 transmit the virus.
"The science is telling us that it's probably better, as children are older, since they're more likely to transmit, almost as likely as adults once we get past the age of 10, then a virtual option is the right thing to do right now," he said.
Klaas, along with many parents, told 27 News she wants to know how PHMDC chose the benchmarks for allowing in-person classes to start again.
27 News has reached out to PHMDC and will provide updates as we get more information.
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Private schools in Dane County change plans to fit virtual learning - WKOW
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