Wisconsin Lutheran High School Conference teachers and students who expected to walk in their school buildings and finally return to classes next month protested on Sunday a City of Milwaukee Health Department directive that all schools will start with virtual learning.
The group of around 100 parents, teachers and students walked to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s home to speak to him about the health department quietly enacting stricter guidelines for when in-person classes may resume.
Brian Gottschalk, a Wisconsin Lutheran High School math teacher, said in-person education is important and teaching upper-level mathematics courses such as calculus is much better in actual classrooms instead of virtual ones.
“We should have the opportunity to open up schools. Yes, we can do it virtually but we did surveys with kids and their parents and they want to come back to school,” Gottschalk said as he walked from Wick Park to the mayor’s house.
Gottschalk said he and other Wisconsin Lutheran High School teachers were already preparing their curriculum for the fall semester to begin Aug. 19 in person. Now they’re scrambling to retool their syllabi and coursework.