With mask requirements, weekly COVID-19 testing and other pandemic-related procedures in place, students are set to return to full-time classroom learning this week in Park Ridge-Niles School District 64.
The District 64 Board of Education, meeting on Aug. 12 at Jefferson School in Niles, adopted a detailed in-person learning plan for the 2021-22 school year, which begins Aug. 19.
The plan sets rules for mask wearing, social distancing, weekly testing of unvaccinated students if parents permit it, and lunch procedures. New policies related to quarantine in the event of COVID-19 exposure and new decision-making metrics that look at transmission rates rather than individual case numbers are also included.
“This plan will keep the most kids in school, which is going to be a welcome change from last year,” said Board Member Rebecca Little.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” added Board Member Phyllis Lubinski. “Even though we have to wear masks, I want kids in school.”
The board’s 6-0 vote to adopt the in-person learning plan came after five individuals, who were not district residents, addressed the board with complaints about state-ordered mask requirements in schools and other issues, like critical race theory and sex education. One man called masks “ineffective” against the spread of COVID-19, while he and another speaker downplayed the impact of the virus on children.
The speakers were among a group of about 12 citizens who attended the meeting.
Three of the five people who spoke acknowledged they were not residents of District 64 or parents of District 64 students. Public records show the other two speakers are also not residents of the district.
Niles police were present while members of the group gathered together outside the school after the public comment portion of the meeting.
The in-person learning plan adopted by the school board “reflects current guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control,” the plan states.
In accordance with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Aug. 4 mask mandate for public schools, the plan requires that all students, teachers, staff and visitors wear masks while inside school buildings, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status. The plan cites guidance from the CDC and IDPH, which states that masks are “the most effective measure to prevent transmission (of COVID-19)” among the unvaccinated.
Children under age 12 are currently not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
“Students who refuse to wear masks will not be permitted to attend school,” said District 64 Spokesman Nick Shepkowski.
Prior to the governor’s mask mandate in light of growing cases of COVID-19 across the state, a group of parents attending a July 15 meeting of the District 64 Board of Education called upon the district to make masks “optional” for unvaccinated students. These parents did not address the board on Aug. 12.
The in-person learning plan notes that “every attempt will be made to instruct students in the importance of wearing a mask.” Children are allowed to remove their masks while outside, such as during recess, and while eating lunch, the plan says.
The plan also advocates COVID-19 vaccines, though it states that they “have not yet been mandated.”
In an effort to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and transmission, District 64 plans to test students for COVID-19, with the permission of their parents, using the SHIELD Illinois saliva-based test developed by researchers at the University of Illinois, the plan says.
Tests will be administered each week at each school building for children whose parents have agreed to the testing, said Shepkowski said.
As of Monday, the district had not yet reached out to parents with permission forms, and the date when testing will begin had not been finalized, he said.
District 64 Superintendent Eric Olson said the testing will allow for fewer students to be quarantined at home if they came into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus. According to the in-person learning plan, students and staff who were potentially exposed to COVID-19 can remain in school and will not have to quarantine if they continue to test negatively on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 following an exposure.
Fully vaccinated students and staff will not be required to quarantine “as long as they remain asymptomatic,” the plan says.
The learning plan calls for students to keep at least three feet of distance from each other “as much as possible.” Lunch will be eaten inside school lunch rooms or outside when the weather permits, according to the plan.
Outside, students will eat while sitting on the grass, Olson said, and inside, they will have assigned seating at tables, Shepkowski said. The plan calls for students to be spaced “3 feet apart or more, as much as possible” while eating in lunchrooms.
District 64 plans to maintain regular building schedules and students will move between classrooms as they normally have in the past, the plan indicates.
Olson said the development of the plan included meetings with multiple school groups, including administrators, union leaders, members of the Pandemic Advisory Committee and presidents of parent-teacher associations and organizations.
“Many groups have lent feedback to this plan,” he said.
The previous school year in District 64 started with students remaining at home for remote learning. While the school transitioned to a hybrid plan in October 2020, students were back at home learning within just weeks due to an uptick in COVID-19 spread across the area. In-person school resumed for the majority of students on March 29.
