August 11, 2021
COVID-19 mitigation guidelines for 2021-22
At the August 10 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Hunt gave a presentation to the Board about the district's COVID-19 mitigation guidelines for the 2021-22 school year. You can view the district's mitigation guidelines in the graphic below:
IL school mask mandate
On August 4, 2021 Governor Pritzker signed Executive Order #85 which requires universal masking in all public and private K-12 schools. The district is developing a matrix to use to determine when students and staff are able to begin to phase out mitigation strategies. The work is ongoing and will not be utilized until after Governor Pritzker lifts the school mask mandate. 
 
Data sources being considered include community transmission data from the Northwestern Medicine Dashboard and Lake County Health Department for ZIP codes 60010, 60110, 60021, & 60192.
 
According to the Northwestern Medicine dashboard, as of August 10, 2021 the total new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days is at 101.9 for these four zip codes. Per the CDC, this is a high level of community transmission. Once the statewide school mask mandate is lifted and if the level of community transmission is moderate or low, the district is exploring the following data to consider when masks can be removed:

  • Vaccination rates
  • Person-to-person transmission rates per building as identified through contact tracing
  • Staff and students quarantined per building
  • Positive cases per building (SHIELD testing, BinaxNow, PCR)
Board adopts tentative FY22 budget
At its August 10 meeting, the Board heard a presentation on the tentative FY22 budget. Approximately 83% of the district's revenue comes from local property taxes. The balance comes from state and federal funding, and other local revenues such as registration fees and donations. In the FY22 budget, revenues are expected to exceed expenditures. A public hearing on the proposed budget will take place at the Sept. 8 Board meeting. The final budget is anticipated to be approved on Sept. 21. You can view the budget presentation in the Board meeting video beginning at 1:37:39.
Board approves new BHS Assistant Principal
At the August 10 Board meeting, the Board approved Lori Hermann as a new Assistant Principal at Barrington High School. Hermann comes to Barrington 220 from Elgin Area School District U46, where she has worked for the past 17 years as a social worker. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa, where she studied Psychology, Communication Studies and Human Relations. She also holds two master's degrees, one in Educational Leadership from Concordia University and one in Social Work from Aurora University.