The Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 Board held a special meeting on Thursday, Dec. 10. All seven board members joined members of the district administration to participate in the virtual meeting, which took place remotely. Board president Kara Caforio noted that current health concerns made it neither practical nor prudent to hold an in-person meeting.
The special meeting took place five days before the regularly scheduled board meeting of Dec. 15. That meeting is the board’s final regular meeting of 2020.
The lone agenda item of the Dec. 10 special meeting was the return to in-person learning in January 2021. District 205 Superintendent David Moyer noted during the meeting that district administrators have been working in the last month to allow the return to some in-person instruction in January. Responding to rising cases of COVID-19, the district transitioned from a hybrid model of instruction to fully remote instruction as of Oct. 21. About 200 of the district’s special-needs students returned to school buildings on Nov. 30.
Moyer told the board that the district’s administration believes it is feasible and appropriate to return to a hybrid form of instruction that includes in-person learning on Jan. 11, 2021. Moyer, who said that the community has made it clear it wants students back in school buildings, proposed that the district utilize Jan. 6 as a professional learning day. He said the district has received all of the iPads it recently ordered. The professional learning day on Jan. 6, Moyer said, could serve as a day to train teachers in the use of the new iPads.
Moyer added that Jan. 7 and Jan. 8 could be remote learning days. He said that Monday, Jan. 11, could mark the return of hybrid learning that would include in-person instruction in district buildings.
Moyer stated that Jan. 11 is 10 days after the New Year’s Day holiday, and he said that hopefully the members of the district community would stay at home during that 10-day period to provide the safest environment possible by Jan. 11. He said that the district’s goal is to avoid returning to fully remote instruction, and that the district could be more surgical about any potential closures in the future by closing certain schools, if necessary, while keeping others open.
Moyer said that the district has been consulting with an infectious disease doctor, who has advised that the district has to maintain a fidelity to wearing masks in schools. Additionally, the doctor advised the elimination of snack breaks while in school. The doctor also advised the importance of preserving social distancing of at least six feet.
Moyer said the district is concerned about preserving social-distancing guidelines at Bryan Middle School, given the number of people who want to return to in-person instruction at that school. Instead of dividing students into two groups (A and B), which happened during hybrid learning in the first semester, students at Bryan could be divided into three groups (A, B and C) during the second semester.
With students divided into two groups, each student received two days of in-person instruction per week. Wednesdays are fully remote days for all students. That model of hybrid instruction would continue during the second semester, with the possible exception of Bryan. If divided into three groups, students in the C group would receive in-person instruction on Wednesdays, and on two of three Fridays during a three-week period.
The in-person school day for middle-school students during the first semester ran from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The district stated the feedback it received included complaints about the lack of any breaks or transition time during that five-hour school day. In the second semester, the district is proposing an in-person school day for middle-school students that runs from 8:30 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. The proposed schedule would include more than three hours of additional remote instruction each week, compared to the first semester.
The proposed schedule for in-person instruction at York High School calls for students to be at school from 7:40 a.m. until 12:55 p.m. Students in Group A would receive in-person instruction on Mondays and Tuesdays, while students in Group B would be in the school building on Thursdays and Fridays. All York students would receive remote instruction on Wednesdays.
Board member Courtenae Trautmann stated she didn’t like that the new proposals for the middle-school schedules provided less in-person time in school, compared to the in-person instruction during the first semester. She also said she didn’t like the proposal to divide Bryan Middle School students into three groups, which would lead to each student receiving in-person instruction for five days over a period of 15 school days.
The district recently sent a form to its families who received fully remote instruction during the first semester. The district asked the families if they would be interested to transition to hybrid learning during the second semester. Overall, 366 district students (about 23 percent of the student population receiving fully remote instruction) responded they wanted to switch to the hybrid model during the second semester. If those 366 students move to the hybrid model of instruction, more than 85 percent of the district’s total student population would be included in the hybrid model.
Board member Christopher Kocinski stated that the collective wisdom of thousands of district parents was telling. He said that even as COVID-19 cases increase, more district parents are interested in having their children receive in-person instruction. Kocinski added that numerous specialists have stated that it’s healthy for kids to attend school in person.
Moyer also spoke during the meeting about the possibility of the district paying for saliva testing to screen district students and staff members for the COVID-19 coronavirus. He said if the board wanted those tests to be up and running in the district by January, it would have to make a decision no later than the Dec. 15 meeting.
Moyer said that a doctor consulting with the district advised that in order for testing to be effective, the district would need a participation rate of at least 60 percent. Moyer said that the saliva testing is not a fail-safe, but it would provide another level of protection. He said that the two primary benefits of the testing would be to reduce anxiety among staff and to create transparency concerning risk, based on available data.
Moyer outlined possible options for utilizing the tests, which would be taken at home. He said the district could test all student-athletes, and make the tests available for all faculty members. He said the district could consider testing students in grades 6-12, or it could test all students. If the district tested all students and found very low rates of COVID-19 in its students in grade 5 and below, it could discontinue testing for those students.
Moyer noted that the tests cost $11 per test. If that test indicates someone has tested positive for COVID-19, that person would need to go take another test. He said students would take the test each week.
Trautmann expressed concern about the brief timeline for potentially approving the tests and surveying the community to learn if a minimum of 60 percent of district families would participate in taking the test. Board member Jim Collins questioned why the figure of 60 percent was the minimum level for the tests to be effective. Collins stated that the district doesn’t have closed campuses, and that people go home every night. Collins referred to a statistic claiming that 50 percent of COVID-19 cases are transmitted within homes.
Moyer said that if the district does enter into a contract for the saliva testing, it would have some flexibility regarding the number of tests purchased.
While discussing the staffing challenges and the availability of substitute teachers, Luke Pavone, the district’s assistant superintendent of human resources, stated the district had 233 active substitute teachers during the 2019-20 school year. He said the district still has 233 substitutes, but only 29 are currently taking assignments.
The regular meeting of Dec. 15 marked the board’s final regular meeting of 2020. The board’s first regular meeting of 2021 is scheduled for Jan. 12.
