Brief from the Board meeting on Oct. 1, 2020
Discussion - Reopening of District 54 Schools
District 54 presented the School Board with a plan to bring students back to school for in-person instruction two days a week with enhanced safety protocols, while still allowing families the option to have their children only attend school remotely.
Since spring, District 54 has been closely monitoring guidance released through the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Cook County Department of Public Health related to the metrics that should be used to determine when and how it might be safe to return some students to in-person learning. State guidance released in August identified five key public health metrics to be considered by school districts: Overall County Transmission Level, New Cases per 100,000 people, the Positivity Rate, the Total Number of New Cases and the Youth Case increase. The Illinois Department of Public Health updates these metrics each Friday and identifies the level of community transmission associated with each metric as minimal, moderate or substantial.
District 54 will continue to prioritize the health and safety of students and staff by monitoring the fluctuating public health indicators in our region, engaging in regular communication with the Cook County Department of Public Health and implementing appropriate mitigation strategies, including the wearing of masks, symptom screening, temperature checks, maintaining 6 feet of social distancing, hand washing and deep cleaning.
The hybrid model includes two full days of in-person instruction and three days of remote learning each week, which will allow District 54 to lower class sizes and adhere to social distancing guidance. Detailed plans will be emailed to all families and staff tonight and posted on our website at sd54.org/reopeningD54. Parents/guardians are asked to make a selection by Oct. 6 so that District 54 can place students into A and B groups (prioritizing keeping families together) and assign bus routes. In-person classes would start Oct. 19.
The plan is subject to change based on local health conditions or any revised guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Cook County Department of Public Health. The uncertainty of health conditions and the resulting impact on staffing availability may require District 54 to toggle back and forth between remote and in-person learning for the foreseeable future.
A full return to in-person learning will not occur until there is broad access to a safe and effective vaccine, a highly effective treatment or when there are no new COVID-19 cases over a sustained period of time. This is a consistent guideline dictated in Governor Pritzker’s Restore Illinois Plan and one that all school districts must adhere to.
For more information from tonight's board meeting, click here.
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