Great news: I am excited to let you know that we will return to our traditional in-person five days per week, 8-period day schedule on Monday, April 5. We are eager to welcome students back for full-day in-person learning, five days per week. Early next week, your principal will send you details about our return to fully in-person learning. Know that families who want their students to remain in our remote learning model will have that option. All classes will continue to be livestreamed.
Starting on April 5:
- We return to our pre-pandemic 8-period day schedule.
- Lunch will be served. Although the 50-person indoor limit has been revised, we still must maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet when people are eating.
- Buses will run their usual routes and schedules.
- We will no longer have Hybrid A, B and C groups; these students will become in-person students on April 5.
- Classroom layouts will be altered to reflect the new capacity guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
- Families who want their students to remain in our remote learning model will have that option. All classes will continue to be livestreamed.
We developed our versatile schedule to be flexible and enable us to make this positive shift so that all students could maintain their courses and teachers regardless of the learning mode they have chosen.
Revised state guidance
Updated guidance from health officials allows us to pivot back to our traditional schedule, while still following safety mitigations. On March 9, the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education released Revised Public Health Guidance for Schools. The new guidance includes this significant change:
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Social distancing decreases from 6 feet to 3 feet for students and fully vaccinated staff, increasing classroom capacity.
The safety of our students and staff is our No. 1 priority. We will continue to work closely with health officials and follow safety mitigations, which include:
- Consistent and correct use of face masks
- Social distancing
- Hand hygiene
- Cleaning protocols
- Contact tracing in collaboration with the DuPage County Health Department
- Saliva screening program
- Self-certification of symptoms
- Temperature scanning
Partnership with GEA and AFSCME
Throughout the pandemic, we have expressed the desire to return to our 8-period schedule 5 days a week when the guidance and the science permitted us to do so. The safety of our students and staff has always been at the forefront of our decision making process. We are pleased that the Glenbard Education Association (GEA) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1970 are firmly in support of today’s announcement.
GEA president Kevin Sutton said, ""Our teachers are proud to work in a district that follows the science and prioritizes the safety of its students, staff, and community while providing a high-quality education. We are excited to move closer to something resembling normal."
AFSCME Local 1970 president Viraj Dhebar said, “It now finally seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel in which we will carefully transition again to a full five-day in-person learning model. We are pleased this outcome will be reached in a safe and diligent manner.”
Encouraging health trend data
We are encouraged by the downward trend of health statistics that we have tracked for months, including the COVID-19 positivity rate in our area and the number of cases per 100,000 people. We are optimistic that with increased vaccination, these numbers will continue to decrease.
We are thrilled that many of our faculty and staff members have been vaccinated against COVID-19, and we are working to provide additional opportunities for the remainder of the staff to be vaccinated.
Next steps
Early next week, your principal will send you details about our return to fully in-person learning, including information if you want to change your teen’s learning model.
Additionally, there are a few changes to the previously released schedule. Wednesday, March 17, will be an asynchronous learning day for students as staff will be working in Professional Learning Communities. April 14 and 15, which were scheduled to be testing days, are now full days of instruction, as ISBE has cancelled these tests. As planned, all juniors will attend school in-person on Wednesday, March 24, to take the Illinois Science Assessment and Tuesday, April 13, to take the SAT. Review our revised spring semester calendar.
We will continue to offer free meal pickup for students in our remote learning model. Details about pickup times and dates will be announced soon.
There is a great deal of work to be done to reconfigure our buildings for the change. We've anticipated this return to the 8-period day and will use the next two weeks and spring break to ramp up for it.
We are eager to return to our traditional in-person learning, five days a week and can’t wait to see our students on April 5.
Sincerely,
David F. Larson, Ed.D.
Superintendent
