After a lengthy meeting Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors voted to approve most of the MPS administration plan to return to in-person learning in April.
Staff will return to buildings on April 12, the first Monday after spring break.
Students from kindergarten to grade 3 will follow on April 14, and 4th-8th graders will go back on Monday, April 19.
Students will attend Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and continue with virtual learning on Wednesdays.
High school students – except for seniors and students who are at risk of failing at least one course, who go back on April 26 – will not return to in-person learning this school year.
Freshman, sophomores and juniors at MPS high schools, which are on the early start calendar, will continue to work at home. The last day of school, including finals week, for early start students is May 26.
The last day for schools on the traditional calendar is June 11.
Masks will be required by everyone in school buildings, where no more than 15 students will be in a classroom at a time, with that number rising to 18 if they can be six feet apart. (How the district's space-squeezed schools will handle this remains a question.)
Virtual learning remains an option for all students at all grade levels.
The vote, 5-2, came in the early hours of Wednesday as the meeting, which began at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, ran for more than seven hours.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
