Exactly one year after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all schools in Illinois, U-46 administrators told the school board Monday the school district will able to reopen them on a full-time basis April 7.
“It’s been a certainly challenging year,” said Suzanne Johnson, the district’s deputy superintendent of instruction. “None of this has been easy.”
After spring break, which is scheduled for March 29 to April 2, students who are signed up for hybrid learning will return to school for full days five days per week.
“We don’t have a perfect model this year,” Johnson said. “We know that, in our preference, we wouldn’t be here having this discussion in March about what our next instructional model looks like for the last two months of the school year.”
Superintendent Tony Sanders said that 47% of district students are in the hybrid education model, which is a combination of in-person and remote learning.
The state’s decision to reduce social distancing from six feet to three combined with fewer students in the buildings helped make the switch to a full-time, in-person schedule possible, Sanders said.
“Bringing back the students in this manner, with the three feet of social distance, is plausible right now because 53 percent of our students have chosen to remain in distance learning,” Sanders said.
Students who are doing remote learning full time right won’t be able to return to school because there’s not enough space for social distancing, he said. However, “we will put together some protocols, working collaboratively with our teachers, principals and others, if opportunities do arise for that to happen,” he said.
“We have to really build out our model based on what we have in front of us right now in terms of the students who we know are in hybrid and work to grow from there. … I appreciate the community’s patience on that front,” Sanders said.
Families who selected e-learning over a hybrid schedule were told they couldn’t change their minds later.
“If we opened it back up for more students to return in person, it lowers our ability to serve every kid every day,” Sanders said. “So I just want the public to realize that this is going to be an ever-changing thing until COVID is at a place where it’s controlled.”
Every district staff member — about 6,800 employees — has been offered the chance to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. So far, about 3,900 have received the first dose and another 3,700 have received both, officials said.
“Anybody who wanted it, got it,” Sanders said. By April 7, employees who opted to receive vaccines through the district will have had their second doses with enough time passed to be fully vaccinated, he said.
More than 1,000 people were in the Zoom audience to watch the school board meeting. The issue of when to return students to class on a full-time basis has been a contentious one, with many parents arguing there was no reason to delay reopening the schools.
Some remained angry because the return-to-school option will not be available to all students, and used the “Return to Learn Update” Facebook page to post comments while the board was meeting.
“Am I the only one that is furious with the decision? The option to go back should be given to all kids!” one social media user posted.
Board member Eva Porter acknowledged there’d still be some unhappy parents.
“The presentation that we saw tonight, it is not going to please everyone,” she said. “A plan today might not be the plan tomorrow (but) I see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Board member Kate Thommes said her concern was for teachers, who are “hanging by a thread.”
“I just want to be sure that we do everything we can to support them because we’re asking them to do their first day of teaching all over again,” she said.
It’s been a tough year for all school districts, many of who will be reopening their schools after spring break as well, board President Sue Kerr said.
“One of the things I’ve learned this year is we’ve had really bad choices to make, often it’s been between a bad choice and a worse choice,” Kerr said. “I think we would really cheat our students if we didn’t go ahead and offer this to them.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.