High school, middle schools reopen plan sent back for changes

After four-and-a-half hours of consideration Thursday night, the District 158 School Board sent a plan for reopening the district’s middle schools and high school back to the drawing board for tweaks and changes.

The board listened to a detailed power-point presented by Superintendent Scott Rowe, live comments from teachers, parents and board members, and the reading of dozens of emails from people who couldn’t or wouldn’t attend a public meeting.

The board doesn’t vote approval or disapproval of the plan, and Rowe’s presentation is labeled as ”for informational purposes only.” Discussion of the hybrid solution ended with the apparent board nod for the administration to continue to move toward a Nov. 2 reopening.

The administration said Friday the board had asked the district “to pause the rollout of the presented plan to allow for additional discussion at a special meeting to be held next week on Oct. 15.”

The letter to families from Rowe states: “Please understand that this is not a halt to our efforts but rather is an extra measure to ensure that our finalized plans are safe, academically strong, and reflective of the needs of students, staff, families, and the community.

“We must get this critical next step right, and we will be prepared to present some slightly different options regarding the plan for discussion with the board on Oct. 15.”

The administration gathered plenty of input Thursday night, including objections from teachers, staff, and parents presented in person and via emails to the district. Teachers union leadership called for the board to vote as an expression of their approval or disapproval, but board members declined.

The plan calls for dividing students into two groups, labeled A and B, with the A group present in the middle schools and high school on Monday and Tuesday while the B group is fully remote, following lessons on their computers from home. That would switch on Thursday and Friday, when the B group would be in the classroom and the A group in their homes. Wednesdays would be fully remote with no students in the schools.

All students would receive the same instruction from the same teacher who would be live in the classroom while also live on a Zoom app to students learning remotely.

According to some of the teachers, district administrators met with teachers earlier in the week to announce the plan and to inform them they would have to return to the classroom. Dozens of teachers have been working from home to protect themselves or their family members from the coronavirus, and the district has informed them to prepare to return to the classroom or take unpaid leave from their jobs.

One email read at the meeting indicated board members, administrators, and some community members met privately this week to discuss the plan. Asked by MyHuntleyNews.com about the secret meeting, Dan Armstrong, district director of communications and public engagement, said Rowe and board members had heard about a meeting of concerned parents and asked to attend.

“They attended on an informal basis and had a productive exchange with them,” according to Armstrong. “It was not a formal meeting organized by the district.” He didn’t immediately respond to questions about which board members attended, who organized the meeting and where it was held. MyHuntlyNews.com will update the story if and when he does.

Three veteran Huntley High School teachers told the board the hybrid plan of returning students and teachers to classrooms would force them into retirement because it doesn’t allow teachers with “morbidity issues” to continue teaching from home, as they have been doing since Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered schools closed in March.

Jeff Beam, a 12-year special services teacher, said he was “shocked” by the administration’s plan that will make him decide between his profession and his health. “A plan that makes us make a choice between our life and our livelihood is irresponsible,” he said.

Another teacher, Steve Sturm, said the district expects employees to “sacrifice” themselves and their families to meet the lifestyle choices of the community. He noted social media websites have featured photographs of people among the leaders of the community groups appearing at weddings and family gatherings, indicating they weren’t practicing social distancing or safety guidelines established by the state.

“We’re in a pandemic, but the administration would like us to think we’re not,” wrote high school English teacher Denise Stanfa. She said the number of COVID cases in McHenry County this week are higher than any day in April or May, and pointed to social media accounts of students that showed them flouting safety guidelines at parties and gatherings.

Rowe later noted photos had been posted on social media sites of numerous Huntley High School students attending “homecoming parties” last week, on what would have been the date for homecoming had the football season not been canceled. Rowe warned the behavior pictured in the photos could spread the virus and generate new cases at a rate that could close the school.

Other teachers spoke out against or objected in writing to the plan’s requirement that they teach to a live classroom of students at the same time they teach via Zoom to a remote class of students at home.

In remarks later in the meeting, school board members seemed to agree with the teachers and offered that students could bring their computers into the classroom and receive instruction through their computers from the teachers seated at their own desks just feet away.

Rowe said the dual role of teaching to students in-person and online at the same time would be in effect only until the start of the second semester, when fully remote sections of classes would be introduced “where possible.”

“I don’t know what parents and students are expecting when they return to the school, but it won’t be a return to normal,” wrote Edward Philpot, math teacher and soccer coach at the high school.

Those words were echoed by Rowe, who said the classrooms would be limited to 15 students, seated in desks at least six feet apart. Like the teacher, all students would be masked at all times.

To keep students from congregating in hallways between classes, passing periods would be reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes with staff in the hallways directing students to move along. Students who arrive earlier than 10 minutes before the start of school will be directed to the gym at the high school or the gym, cafeteria or library at the middle schools, where they will be assigned to a seat that is at least six feet away from other students. While they can talk freely with the other students, social distancing will be enforced.

To help control the spread of the virus, Rowe said the district will treat students who are not properly wearing their masks as safety violators. He noted photos on social media and stories of students taking off their masks while recently taking the SAT tests. The first instance of a student caught not wearing a mask on school property will result in a reprimand from staff. Second violation would bring a referral to the dean’s office where the student will meet with the dean and the student’s parents will be called. Third violation would have the student restricted to remote learning only for two weeks. Another violation would force the student from the building to remote learning for the semester.

“We have to maintain a safe environment, and we’re going to do that,” Rowe said. “It’s not a punitive thing. … This is a safety issue” that impacts the district’s ability to keep the schools open.

An email from a community member read during the meeting asked how students could be allowed back in the buildings after students have recently tested positive. Rowe confirmed that late last month members of the high school’s freshman basketball and football teams tested positive after starting practice. Those students have been quarantined and the contact practices have been stopped, he said.

While teachers and staff entering the buildings will be screened for their temperature and are required to report any coronavirus symptoms on a daily basis, the district will rely on monthly reports from parents about any student who exhibited symptoms. Social media accounts and photos of students and their families socializing without protective masks or social distancing draw into question the value of some of the monthly reports in determining if students and their families are following guidelines.

“If a student is coming to school knowing they have symptoms, or they have taken a COVID test and are awaiting results, or they have tested positive for COVID, they will be removed” and made to attend fully remote classes, Rowe said.

Brad Aney, a high school social studies teacher and president of the teachers union, said a poll of teachers found nearly 74% of middle school teachers and more than 72% of high school teachers were opposed to the hybrid plan. His main objection appeared to be timing, as Aney said the Nov. 2 deadline would be too soon to make it effective and urged the change be moved to the start of the second semester in January. He warned that it was “going to create an alternate experience in the school that is unlike anything students have experienced in the past.”

Aney speculated the district was putting the hybrid system in place in November because “we’re trying to get the kids back before the storm hits.” He said that made him and other staff nervous, “getting kids into the buildings knowing that we might be the reason the storm hits.” Rowe later objected to Aney’s assessment and pointed out he had never talked about “the storm.”

“The plan presented by Dr. Rowe will take education in District 158 further back than ever before,” Aney said.

In response to a question from a board member, Rowe said the Nov. 2 date is the earliest the district can reopen the schools after the McHenry County Department of Health gave all middle schools and high schools in the county the go-ahead to bring students back.

“We’ve been clear through this process that we’d rather have in-person learning,” Rowe said. He said the next step after the hybrid solution would be to fully open the schools.

Parents will be given a choice whether to send their students back into the classroom for a couple days a week or continue the fully remote learning at home. A survey was to be sent to all families on Friday to be returned to the school next week. It was unclear Friday whether the survey would be delayed as the plan is tweaked and presented again on Oct. 15.

Rowe said the scheduling of the groups would require significant work by school staff and warned parents not to ask school administrators to assign their student to one group over the other.