District 158 schools return to remote schedule
HUNTLEY – District 158 schools will return to a fully remote schedule starting Monday, Oct. 26, the district told parents on Thursday after the county reported worsening conditions for the spread of the coronavirus.
The district’s elementary schools had returned to a hybrid schedule of in-person and online learning on Monday, and the district’s middle schools and Huntley High School were slated to start a hybrid schedule on Nov. 2.
In a letter to parents, Superintendent Scott Rowe said the district “will do an adaptive pause from hybrid learning” at least through Friday, Nov. 6.
“To have this shift become necessary at the end of the first week of having students in-person under our elementary hybrid model is heartbreaking,” Rowe wrote to parents. “We heard many positive comments from families and staff members about their experiences this past week.
“We want to have students back in our buildings, and we know our community wants that option as well. To do so, we MUST come together as a community to get our metrics back in line.”
All public schools in McHenry County have been on schedules dictated by statistics posted by the McHenry County Department of Health, tracking the number of cases per 100,000 people, the rate of positive results on tests for COVID-19, a weekly county of new cases among adults and among youth.
The most recent statistics have shifted past the levels set by the county for seven of the past 10 days. The number of cases per 100,000 people stood at 23 on Thursday, above the standard of 14. The positivity rate for people taking COVID-19 tests was at 12.5%, nearly double what it was only last week and above the 8% standard. The weekly count of new cases was posted at 313 on Thursday, a number that showed a rapid increase from last week. Only the rate of hospitalization for people diagnosed with COVID-19 didn’t rise in the county, but it didn’t decline either.
“This is devastating to us, too,” Rowe told the school board Thursday evening. “This is not where we want to be.”
Rowe separated out the Zip Codes that feed into the District 158 schools and found it mirrored the county data, despite starting the exercise with hope that it would not.
He also said the county’s efforts to contact trace cases of COVID-19 to help stem the spread is being met with cooperation from only about 55% of the population.
“I know that everyone’s frustrated,” Rowe said. “So are we. And I ask that instead of turning on one another, we band together and try to turn the tide again. In terms of getting our kids back in school, help us with that process. Our goal is our students’ education and our students’ safety.”
The return to remote learning will impact all students in the district with elementary students ending the hybrid schedule that allowed them the equivalent of one full day of in-person learning per week. The hybrid model for middle schools and the high school would not start before Nov. 9, a week later than planned.
District 158 reports on its website the number of students and staff in the district who have tested positive over the past 14 days. On Thursday, the dashboard showed a total of 19 people had tested positive, including 10 staff members and nine students. The highest numbers were reported from Huntley High School with four staff members and two students, even though the high school has yet to offer in-person education for the general student population.
Under the health department’s recommendations, all school districts in the county will be fully remote for at least the next 14 days. If the levels of COVID-19 infections rise or stay the same, districts would remain fully remote. Only if statistics fall below the upper ranges established by the county could students be allowed back in the schools.
The district has been wrestling with protecting the health and safety of students and staff while attempting to come up with plans to bring students back into the schools to allow in-person teaching and learning.
The issue has been highly divisive within the community. A survey of families with students in the middle schools and high school was returned to the administration on Wednesday. About 59% of families from both Heineman and Marlowe middle schools chose to return to school in the hybrid model, with 41% choosing to remain fully remote. At Huntley High School, only 40% of families chose to send their students back into the building, with 60% choosing to remain remote.
Board President Anthony Quagliano expressed surprise at the low levels of families that chose to return their students to school, saying he had expected about 75% of families to want their children back in class, even if only part-time.
The district’s plan for the middle and high schools allowed for students to spend the equivalent of one full day in school each week. Rowe speculated that level was the reason for the less than enthusiastic reaction from families, as well as the start date of Nov. 2, which would allow for only six weeks of the schedule before the end of the semester.
Each meeting of the District 158 School Board begins with about an hour of public comments from people live in the board room or through emails and letters sent to the district and read by administrative staff. For the past three months, the comments have been split with people on each side expressing their outrage over the situation.
The district reminded members of the community that the statistics were a reflection of their behavior and encouraged people to:
• Wear a mask
• Maintain six feet of distance from others whenever possible
• Wash and/or sanitize hands frequently
• Avoid large gatherings
• Cooperate with contact tracing processes (please call back when you are called)
• Follow quarantine protocols as directed if you are exposed
• Monitor your symptoms, stay home when sick, and get tested.
The district also reminded people that anyone can be tested COVID-19 for free at the health department’s mobile testing site, which will be set up in the parking lot at Marlow Middle School parking lot Saturday, Oct. 24, and Sunday, Oct. 25.
