Arcadia reduces waiver requests

 After further consideration and conversations with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the Arcadia School District are reducing their waiver requests under the Covid-19 District Flexibility waiver from 31 to four.

 District superintendent Lance Bagstad said through discussions with DPI and Whitehall superintendent Mike Beighley on how to use the waiver, he concluded that Arcadia would only seek waivers for the length of the school day, hours of instruction, educator effectiveness and personnel evaluation.

 “These are four areas that will be impacted to the greatest extent by continually changing schedules and methods of instruction and may be most difficult to meet,” Bagstad said. “The other statutory areas for which we were seeking flexibility through the waiver will be viewed by DPI as having flexibility in the application of the statutes without the need to actually seek a formal waiver.”

 Bagstad added that if a formal waiver is needed at a later date, additional public hearings would be held to deal with those topics on a case-by-case basis. 

 “At this time, I do not foresee the need for additional requests for waivers, but the option is always available to us,” Bagstad said.

 The waiver would negate the need for the school district to: establish rules for scheduling hours in a normal school day, meet minimum instructional hours in grades K through 12, evaluate teachers based on student performance to specified teaching standards and hold first-year and every third year evaluations for certified school personnel.