Moraine Park Technical College has extended their limited campus accessibility restrictions until at least Jan. 4, 2021.

In early June, Moraine Park announced its five-phased Reopening Plan and has safely and successfully transitioned through each phase. The College is still expecting to enter phase five as planned, on Oct. 1, with this revision.

 “Currently, COVID-19-related illnesses and exposures remain low on our campuses,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president said. “While we all know this could change quickly, our leadership team is hopeful the safety measures implemented, as well as our students and staff’s continued accountability for personal health and hygiene, will help these efforts.” 

While the College will remain closed to the general public, this change will not affect MPTC classes, events and activities. As this date gets closer, college leaderships will reevaluate the opening date following the health department’s metrics and guidelines. 

For up to date COVID-19 information, including the College’s full reopening plan, visit morainepark.edu/coronavirus.

Moraine Park Technical College’s fall 2020 semester will begin, as scheduled, on Aug. 24, and end Dec. 18. As of now, the College is moving forward with a typical semester schedule. 

Fall classes will be offered in a variety of formats—face-to-face, blended (a mix of face-to-face and online), and online. Most program classes will continue to be offered in-person, while many general education classes will have both in-person and online options. The delivery format for all classes will be finalized by July 6. 

While a return to campus is a step toward regaining some normalcy, there will be some noticeable changes.  

• Face-to-face classes will have social distancing measures implemented. Classes typically offered online will remain on that platform.  
• Mask-wearing is strongly encouraged, but not required.  
• Cleaning protocols, as recommended by the CDC, have been enhanced.  
• Visitors on campus will be limited.   
• Virtual meetings and learning opportunities will be offered when possible.  
• Bookstore face-to-face operations will be open, with some restrictions.  
• Limited food service/catering and vending will resume Aug. 24, with restrictions.  
• Student activities and gatherings will be restricted to smaller groups. 

“The health and safety of the students and employees remain at the forefront and continues to drive the College’s decision making,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president, said. “Many accommodations have been put into place to help navigate a safe return for everyone. We look forward to welcoming students and staff back to campus this fall.”

The College is working its way through a phased-in reopening plan, which includes five phases. Currently, the College remains closed to the general public. Moraine Park will begin welcoming back limited staff throughout the summer to prepare for the fall 2020 semester. Details of the reopening plan can be found at morainepark.edu/coronavirus.  

For more information on Moraine Park, or to register for fall 2020, visit morainepark.edu.

Moraine Park Technical College has developed a plan for a safe reopening of its facilities. In a communication to employees and students earlier this month, the College released its plan to reopen the College with a slow and phased-in approach. The plan, in its entirety, is dependent on directives from state and national authorities and the overall safety of the local community.

“Developing a fluid and phased reopening plan is necessary to ensuring overall safety,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park President, said. “This plan is a great foundation for a secure business reopening, and we are all looking forward to reuniting on our campuses again soon.”

The plan, which includes five phases, is expected to span the entire summer and into mid-fall. Phase one and two are being currently being implemented and focus on providing access to students and faculty needing to complete spring semester face-to-face courses. Thanks to the extensive planning by faculty and staff, all classes, including program and contract training, have made accommodations to complete the spring semester. The campus facilities will remain closed. However, Student Services will be open and accessible by appointment, and the schedule will be available on morainepark.edu. The bookstore reopened by appointment only starting on June 1. To make an appointment with the bookstore, visit morainepark.edu/bookstore.

Phase three is targeted for July and will allow for no more than 50 percent of Moraine Park employees to be on campus. The College will remain closed to the general public, and only individuals with college-related business will be allowed on any of the campuses. Services such as dining and library, and offerings on campuses will remain limited to mitigate gathering; social distancing accommodations will be made wherever possible; personal protective equipment will still be available and is strongly encouraged. Student Services and the Bookstore will remain accessible by appointment.

Phase four, which is targeted for August, will expand in-person operations. The College is hoping to resume to an operational state the week of Aug. 17. However, a variety of accommodations are being considered for both students and employees. Fall classes and programming will resume in the delivery format that makes the most sense. This information will be communicated closer to the start of the fall semester. Safety will remain a top priority, sanitation efforts will remain increased, social distancing should continue, and campus events and activities will be allowed but must adhere to local and state guidelines. Bookstore face-to-face operations will resume with restrictions.

Phase five, the planned final phase targeted for October, will reopen all of Moraine Park’s campuses to the public for events, rentals, community programming, on-site walking, and use of our services such as the library.

For additional details (and possible updates) to the phased-in plan, please visit moranepark.edu/coronavirus.

Moraine Park Technical College has made the difficult decision to cancel Tech Knowledge College (TKC) 2020, originally scheduled for August 4-6. The COVID-19 situation is still very fluid, and the safety and well being of our entire communities are our top priority throughout this difficult and rapidly changing times.

We appreciate the continued community support around this great summer camp opportunity, and stay tuned for information on TKC 2021.

Sign up for the our newsletter at morainepark.edu/tkc to receive information on TKC 2021 as it develops.

As a result of the still-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, Moraine Park Technical College has decided to cancel its 2020 commencement ceremony. 

In early April, following the initial Safer at Home order, the College announced an alternative date for this year’s ceremony with a disclaimer that if social distancing requirements were still in effect, the event would be canceled. Today, the COVID-19 situation remains very fluid, with many unknowns around the reopening of the state, and with the announcement of Gov. Tony Evers extension of the Safer at Home order and his Badger Bounce Back requirements for reopening the state, the College will be unable to hold a large celebration on June 27.

“Moraine Park had the highest hopes to hold a ceremony this year,” Bonnie Baerwald, Moraine Park president, said. “However, the safety of our students, employees, and communities is of the utmost importance to us. With so many unknowns and safety at the forefront, this is just the right thing to do.” 

Baerwald shared a personal announcement with graduates on Wednesday morning that acknowledged their accomplishments, congratulated them on their graduation and detailed how the College plans to help them celebrate from a distance.  

“It is no secret that this historic time has resulted in the loss of many things for many people, but our student’s newly gained college degree is not one of those things,” Baerwald said. “They have worked countless hours and devoted years of their lives to better themselves, and we will still celebrate them.”  

Additionally, Baerwald extended a personal invitation to the graduates to participate in next year’s ceremony, scheduled for May 2021. 

 For Moraine Park’s COVID-19 updates, visit morainepark.edu/coronavirus. 

Emergency funds in the form of a Federal Grant have been provided to MPTC to help students impacted by COVID-19. Specifically, this funding is intended to aid students for expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to the coronavirus. It should provide direct emergency cash grants to students adversely impacted by the ongoing pandemic with unforeseen educational expenses, including:

• books, e-books or audiobooks
• course-related materials, and
• technology (Keeping in mind that what works today may not work tomorrow, such as a checked-out laptop; borrowed equipment; laptops on the fritz. Cables, the continuing cost of high-speed internet, camera, headset, microphone, mouse, etc. are also additional expenses.)

THIS FUNDING CANNOT BE USED FOR TUITION EXPENSES.

Requirements:

• Applicants must be students currently enrolled at MPTC during the spring, 2020 semester.
• Applicants must be enrolled at Moraine Park in associates or technical degrees. Students who are in a certificate, boot camps, or basic education courses, Economic and Workforce Development, Department of Corrections, dual credit (high school), avocational or non-credit courses do not qualify.
• If you are in an online program and completing all of your program courses online at the start of the spring semester 2020, you are not eligible to apply for funding.
• Applicants need to be financial aid eligible; you do not need to be recipients to receive this funding. This means you should complete a FAFSA to demonstrate your eligibility. Go to studentaid.gov if you have not completed a FAFSA for 2019-20.
• Applicants must complete the application (see link below) including a statement related to how the COVID-19 has been impactful and how this funding will be used to alleviate any financial issues.
• Please apply for your current needs. You may reapply as other needs come about.

Moraine Park wants to make sure that all students who are eligible and need money, receive this support as quickly as possible. You are an important member of our community and this money is to support you!

For complete details and the online application process, go to the website: morainepark.edu/caresfund.

*If your emergency is not related to the COVID-19, please go to MPTC’s Student Emergency Fund application to apply for assistance.

Please contact the Student Financial Services Office with questions about the e-Refund of your credit balance at (920) 924-3124 or sfs@morainepark.edu.

Click here for Community Resources for students during COVID-19.

Hello friends!

I wanted to do something from the Sunshine Club to celebrate all of our hard work, so this is what I came up with. I will Blog about this before the end of the week to share with the world.

Many of us are still in acute care or practicing at the bedside, clinic or something and others are not. I want to celebrate that we all have purpose in nursing and have risen to the challenge and what we are doing in not only important, but imperative to make the best graduate nurses in order to care for our communities!

Communicate Clearly– We have had close to 30 hours of Zoom Meetings, we have emailed, instant messaged, face-timed and even used the phone to make plans for our students success.

Act Responsibly– many worked over Spring Break to start making preparations because we knew it was the thing to do. Many are working early mornings, late evenings and weekends.

Work Productively– so many are juggling your home/family life with working from home, home schooling children and still managing to get “the bacon fried up”

Think Critically and Creatively– OH BOY!!!

Adapt to Change- We have learned Zoom, STUDIO, i-Human and beyond!
Demonstrate Integrity- We have worked hard to keep MPTC’s Nursing Program rigorous while taking in consideration our students changing landscape.

Work Cooperatively– well, we always do.

Here is a semi-accurate accounting of all of things we have done inside of a 10 working day period, seriously, we all know it was more but who needs a medal? We are nurses, we do what we do, we dig in, we still cry, yell and wonder why but yet everyday we come back to whatever form of nursing we do. We are cut from a different cloth- not silk, more like burlap- resilient and lasting.
What an unfortunate way to look back at the “Year of the Nurse” but Florence would be so proud of our work. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do, “We got this”.

Associate Degree of Nursing Accomplishments

Unfolding Case Studies- 25

Rubrics- 49

Quiz Questions- 130

Presentations- 3

Patient Scenarios for CCM’s, DCT’s- 46

Discussions- 19

Small Papers- 8

Power Points- 6 weeks of Studio Power points X 5 Theory Classes X 3 sections= roughly 60 X 1,000,000​!

Sunshine Club Love to All!!!! Thank you for being our TEAM

To date, over 600 class sections have moved from a face to face format to online. This means that there has been a lot of adapting and change by students and instructors.

Danielle Cook, surgical technology instructor, is embracing this ‘new normal’ and has been looking for innovative ways to stay connected with her students. She shared with us how she is finding success during these challenging times.

“When COVID-19 hit the US, we had team meetings to discuss how we could move to the digital format if the virus spread to Wisconsin. Less than 2 weeks later, we had to put those plans into place. Here is a glimpse into how the Surgical Technology program is enabling learning from home.

Second-year students were fortunate enough to have met the clinical case requirements set by our Accreditation body, thanks to our strong community partners who work with our students in clinical. Due to this, we can do simulation for their last rotation. Here is where the free mobile app Touch Surgery comes in. Touch Surgery has almost 170 free surgical cases on it and you first “learn” the procedure by going through the steps and virtually completing the surgery. After each section, you test your skills with a short quiz. The students are assigned various cases to be completed and tested on in Touch Surgery and they upload their test results into Canvas. The students are also completed Surgical Case Study Reports and we have a weekly Zoom virtual class and discuss the reports and other things as they arise. While they all miss the operating room, they are happy to be able to still practice virtually, and look forward to being in the workforce in May!

First-year students have one course that was already on-line and two that were blended. We have Zoom virtual classes twice a week to go over their assignments, worksheets, study guides, etc. I have also created short videos of how to use practice passing instruments, utilizing everyday stuff you can find at home. This course is trickier because we will need to be back in the lab to complete the work, but these students continue to review old skill videos and are excited to get back to class.

The Zoom virtual class is what I believe is keeping us all together as a program. Seeing and hearing each other at least once a week keeps that connection, and I bring encouragement to those who are feeling down and unsure right now. I have an awesome group of 20 students. They have been patient and understanding as we navigate this pandemic. Being prepared ahead of time and having the support that the College has provided has helped to make the transition to the digital world much easier. I am very thankful for everyone at the College who has supported the faculty and staff, and most importantly, our students. “

A sincere thank you to all of the Moraine Park instructors, and students for their patience as we move through these times together.

For more information on Moraine Park, visit morainepark.edu.