The Arlington Heights School District 25 board adopted two resolutions Thursday night that are expected to help decide how instruction should be carried out in the near future.
Some of the district’s more than 5,500 students began returning to school buildings Oct. 12 for in-person instruction – as part of a hybrid learning plan – based on their grade level. The following week, the full switch to hybrid was done, with students attending classes onsite either on Tuesday and Thursday or Wednesday and Friday, based on their last name. Students are fully remote on Mondays. There is also an option for all-remote instruction.
Now, under what some school officials have called intense community pressure, the school board is assessing whether this approach should continue. With one resolution, should the Cook County Department of Public Health change school protocols, Superintendent Lori Bein can decide if the district can continue to safely offer hybrid learning.
To assess if a change in learning mode is warranted, the board directed Bein to gather additional information, and a special meeting was to be set for Nov. 12 where members would examine if a return to all-remote learning is appropriate.
School officials would also consider additional information, including results from another parent survey, guidance on social distance requirements for each classroom, input from the teachers union about working conditions, determination on the estimated number of contact tracers that would be needed, and figuring out if instructional program changes would be needed, according to information presented at the meeting.
Bein told Pioneer Press in a phone interview that the information gathering and assessing would be part of a first step in making a decision. Other recommendations and material could be requested by the board, she added.
“Anything can happen.” she said. “We want to make the buildings as safe as possible as we try to bring student back.”
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Some 4,060 students are taking part in hybrid learning while 1,213 chose all-remote, according to district officials.
The district had 27 staff members and 145 students as of Oct. 29 who are excluded from entering a SD25 building because of a positive COVID-19 case, officials said.
Deborah Kadin is a freelancer.