St. Joseph-Ogden Superintendent Brian Brooks emailed parents Friday with an update to plans for the 2020-21 school year.
Brooks writes that the district’s goal is to get 100-percent of SJ-O students back in school every day as soon as possible. But, under the current guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the district does not believe that it can adhere to those guidelines with full-time in-person attendance.
IDPH guidelines require use of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), including face coverings; prohibit more than 50 individuals from gathering in one space; require social distancing be observed, as much as possible; require that schools conduct symptom screenings and temperature checks or require that individuals self-certify that they are free of symptoms before entering school buildings; and require an increase in school-wide cleaning and disinfection.
“We have families that feel we should be 100% back in school full time, families who feel we should be 100% Remote Learning due to safety concerns, families who have major concerns for daycare, and everything in between,” Brooks writes. “We understand and share in the concerns of each of those groups. This is an extremely difficult situation for everyone. We also realize that we cannot meet each groups’ needs, and the frustrations and stress that can cause families. Our expectation at SJO, as well as our parents’ expectations during times outside of a pandemic, is that student safety must come first when there is a potential known danger to students. There is also an expectation that we provide a strong education to our students.”
“Therefore, we don’t feel that we would be doing our due diligence with those expectations if we aren’t following the state health department’s safety guidance during a pandemic, and then aren’t doing everything we can to provide a strong education to our students within those guidelines.”
If the Central region of the Restore Illinois plan remains in Phase 4, as it is today, SJ-O plans to have a hybrid schedule of in-person instruction and remote learning to start the 20-21 school year. Should the Central region of the Restore Illinois plan move back to Phase 3, groups larger than 10 will not be allowed.
In SJ-O’s plans, students would be split into one of two groups (Maroon or Columbia Blue) and would have in-person instruction every other day for a full day.
“There were three primary areas that we looked at and discussed extensively before coming to this recommended hybrid schedule,” Brooks wrote. “1) Safety of our students and staff, 2) Determining the hybrid schedule that best meets the academic needs of our students and provides them with the most face to face instructional minutes, and 3) The concern our families have with daycare due to SJO and our two feeder school districts being on hybrid schedules.”
St. Joseph CCSD #169 will discuss their plans at the school board meeting tonight. Prairieview-Ogden plans on releasing their plans this week.
“This schedule allows us to meet the safety guidelines provided by the IDPH and ISBE, and also allows our students the greatest amount of in-person instruction minutes with their teachers,” Brooks wrote.
“However, it does not offer great assistance for our families who would like their high school student to watch younger siblings and we recognize that. PVO and St. Joe Grade/Middle Schools are both leaning towards two completely different hybrid models, so even if we mirror one feeder school, we would not be assisting the families in the other district. We have spent a lot of hours trying to determine if either of their schedules would work at SJO, but in the end, we feel that both would short change the academic needs of our students. High school education is just completely different than elementary education.”
Brooks said that remote learning will look differently than what took place in the spring during the stay-at-home order.
“We are working towards trying to implement continuous instruction/learning where teachers are moving forward with their curriculum each day (whether in-person or remote) so that students are able to learn as much of the curriculum as possible,” he wrote. “Students will also be assessed for all of their work, and grades will be able to go up or down based on student work.”
The plan will be revisited in September once students are back in the building, and assessments on hallway traffic flows, lunchroom, and classrooms can be made.
“If we determine at that time that we can meet the safety guidelines with all of our students in the building at the same time, then we will transition back to that,” Brooks said.
“All of the information above is contingent on everything in regards to Covid-19 and the IDPH remaining the same on August 17. The whole situation could completely change by then, for the better or worse.”
