With the end of winter break in sight for Aurora-area students, school officials are closely monitoring the spike in COVID-19 cases in Illinois due to the omicron variant.
On Thursday, in-person classes will resume in West Aurora School District.
In a statement, West Aurora Superintendent Jeff Craig said the decision to return with in-person learning “has the support of both the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Kane County Health Department, who understand that in-person learning with the appropriate protective measures is both safe and essential to students’ mental health and academic growth.”
He said district officials “are appreciative of the COVID-19 prevention efforts of our school community, which has helped keep our positive cases to a minimum. It is our intent to continue to be proactive in the consistent implementation of mitigation strategies such as routine cleaning of our facilities, frequent hand washing, consistent mask-wearing and social distancing to the greatest extent possible.”
According to Craig, “the best mitigation strategy available to us is for our students and staff members to stay home when they are sick.”
East Aurora School District 131 is prepared to welcome students back later this week and pause in-person learning if necessary.
“We are set to return for staff on Thursday, Jan. 6, and students on Friday, Jan. 7,” said East Aurora Superintendent Jennifer Norrell. “We have sent correspondence to both our families and reminders to staff to report positive cases, close contacts, symptoms and update vaccination and booster info before returning.
“We are prepared to welcome all students back and in the event we have a high number of positive cases in one school or classroom that would pose challenges with staffing, we have the ability to move that classroom or school to either an adaptive pause or remote learning,” Norrell said.
East Aurora School District will continue with its protocols to fight the pandemic, she said.
“We will continue with our comprehensive mitigation practices as we did before winter break,” she said.
Oswego-based School District 308 is prepared for in-person classes to resume next week.
“Students return Monday, the plan is for students to return in-person,” District 308 Communications Director Theresa Komitas said.
COVID-19 testing is available district-wide, she said.
“The district has a regular testing program open to all students, staff and their immediate families which has been very busy. This will continue to be offered several days every week in an effort to help find cases early and reduce the number of resulting exclusions for close contacts,” Komitas said.
In-person classes will resume at Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday, Jan. 10, following winter break.
“We have seen the positive impact our return to in-person learning has had on students both academically and social-emotionally,” Indian Prairie Superintendent Adrian Talley said Wednesday in a letter to the community. “We want to continue this work in the safest way possible.”
In his public message, Talley said Indian Prairie will use remote learning only at schools where the number of positive COVID-19 cases is very high.
“As I have shared with parents who have asked for the district to move to remote learning, that is an option that the state has not made available to us at this time,” he said.
The district will monitor its schools and transportation providers and update families if situations arise, Talley said.
He also used his message to urge people to get vaccinations and booster shots, citing DuPage County Health Department data that shows an unvaccinated person was 10 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and 20 times more likely to to die from it than someone who has received the full complement of shots.
“I continue to recommend that everyone get vaccinated and boosted to protect yourself and others,” he said.
Rafael Guerrero of the Naperville Sun contributed to this story.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
