Arlington Heights School District 25 made the transition Thursday to a learning model that includes four days of in-person instruction each week, a move that many parents in the district had been pushing.
Days before the switch over, a letter from Superintendent Lori Dr. Bein notified the community of the transition as the area’s COVID-19 positivity rate dipped below the 8% target number that the school board had agreed on back in November.
The drop in the positivity rate triggered the move to what the district is calling Step 4, In-Person or Remote Learning.
At the Jan. 21 school board meeting, school board member Anisha Patel called it “a big day of hope,” but also noted that the SD25 has to continue to meet the needs of students whose parents chose remote learning.
“As a district community we have to realize families across the district are doing what they believe is right for their own family. We have to continue to move forward…supporting quality instruction for all,” she said.
School officials explained that individual notes went home to each family confirming the selection the parents made in December for their child – in-person or remote. Furniture and classroom set up to accommodate the increased number of students who would be physically in school buildings was completed over the weekend before the switch, with some work also being done the Monday before the change, Bein told the school board.
The hybrid option will no longer be available, Bein said.
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Under the new schedule, all students are in remote learning on Mondays, allowing teachers to do small group instruction and have planning time since they are in dual methods of teaching, Bein told the board.
Of the 5,500 students enrolled in SD25, 73% of families chose in-person instruction and 27% chose all-remote – though choices varied by school, officials explained. Families will have the option to switch their choice prior to spring break, which begins March 22, Bein said. The district was previously in a hybrid model of learning where students physically attended school up to two days per week and the rest of the week were remote.
The district had moved to all-remote learning in March and went to hybrid in October. The school board in November set the positivity rate metric the district had to meet for full in-school learning, but the clamor to get students back into the classrooms divided the community long before then.
Officials said recently that internal COVID-19 numbers will be monitored every day for potential upticks in the disease, a situation a district official called “fluid.” The district, in collaboration with local and state public health agencies, will assess if a school, classroom or the entire district needs to return temporarily to all-remote instruction if there is a spike in COVID-19 cases, school leaders explained. Information to parents is expected to be sent via email, the district’s Facebook page and other social media methods.
Every employee who interacts with students – from bus drivers to teachers and office staff – could be provided with COVID-19 inoculations as early as the first week of February, Bein told the board.
Deborah Kadin is a freelancer.