In this Thanksgiving season many of us are taking time to express thanks in a variety of ways. Yesterday, WASB Executive Director John Ashley wrote to Gov. Evers to thank him for supporting local school board decision-making during this difficult pandemic.
As we reported in an earlier blog post, Gov. Evers publicly supported school boards during a recent press conference where he was asked about a call by the state’s largest teachers union for the state to mandate uniform “return to school” criteria on all school districts in Wisconsin. When asked to comment on that request, the governor responded that local school boards, administrators and teachers statewide were “doing their best” and there are places where in-person instruction is “frankly, working well” and that it is “a difficult thing for us to sit here and talk about it being a one (single, uniform) answer to 420-some school districts.”
The WASB appreciates that the governor recognized that school boards and administrators are doing the best job they can as they make difficult decisions that balance the science and their own community’s circumstances.
Evidence suggests that schools are doing a good job of limiting the spread of COVID-19 and that the rapid spread of the virus in communities (i.e., outside of schools) is a much bigger threat to public health and safety than transmission of the virus in school settings.
In his letter to Gov. Evers, John Ashley also wished the governor and his family a safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday. We wish you and your families a safe and healthful Thanksgiving holiday as well.
We appreciate the difficult tasks school boards and administrators are having to take on. We will get through this together.
