Franklin Park school districts are preparing for a school year that—hopefully—resembles pre-pandemic times.
The Illinois State Board of Education passed a resolution in May for the forthcoming school year that states that all schools must resume fully in-person learning
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. The only exceptions listed were for students ineligible for the vaccine and who are under a quarantine order.The resolution means that barring some sort of COVID-19 outbreak between now and the fall, schools should return to fully in-person learning. Illinois entered Phase 5 of its reopening plan on June 11, dropping capacity restrictions.
District 84 Superintendent David Katzin said schools are expecting further guidance and have at times faced stricter restrictions but was optimistic about the coming year.
“We don’t have a full sense of what the parameters will be in place for schools,” Katzin said, adding that it’s quite possible students still will have to wear masks.
The district expects social distancing requirements to be similar to what they are now – three feet distance inside facilities. He said the district should be in good shape for classrooms but might have to add additional lunch periods because of space limitations in the cafeteria. Also, it is possible that the state could require greater distancing during lunchtime.
District 84 never went fully remote. Last year, the bulk of the district’s students were hybrid learners with two days a week in the classroom.
Katzin said that although there were coronavirus cases in District 84, the district “did not have a single, documented case of the virus spreading in the building” based on contact tracing. He said district staff were looking forward to more in-person learning. “Our teachers can’t wait for things to return to something closer to a normal year,” he said.
In High School District 212, Superintendent Nick Polyak said, “there’s still a lot of questions at this stage.”
The district addressed some of the ongoing issues on its website. It states, “As always, the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff is our top priority, and we will continue to monitor the current pandemic situation and make any adjustments as needed.”
Like Katzin, Polyak said it is unclear whether the state will mandate masks for students and staff, adding that space considerations in the cafeteria remain one of the trickiest elements for planning for next year.
“I think our staff has a much higher comfort level going into the year, especially with the availability of the vaccine,” Polyak said.