Monitored bathroom breaks, backpacks instead of lockers, lunch eaten in the classroom instead of the cafeteria.
As south and southwest suburban school districts prep for what will certainly be a dramatically different return to the classroom next month, uncertainties loom over how to accommodate social distancing, and activities such as physical education and music will be altered.
Many districts are surveying families and staff to gauge their comfort level about resuming in-person teaching, and extensive planning sessions aimed at getting schools ready for the first day have been ongoing.
Guidelines provided last month by the Illinois State Board of Education are helping guide districts, which are being told to plan for the possible return to remote learning should COVID-19 cases show a resurgence.
Some schools, to help keep students spread far enough apart, are looking at having an alternating schedule, with a mix of in-class learning and remote learning.
ISBE is asking schools to prioritize education for special ed students, English language learners and those students who had difficulty learning remotely.
Districts around the state scrambled to get remote learning up and running after Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s order that closed public and private schools March 17.
But student participation and attendance, while encouraged, wasn’t required, and doling out grades, in the traditional sense, presented many obstacles.
Remote, or e-learning, was a challenge for many students who lack access to a laptop or other device and may not have reliable internet access.
ISBE is saying districts can continue remote learning for “medically fragile students at a higher risk of severe illness and students who live with individuals at higher risk of severe illness.”
‘Masks are not negotiable’
Districts such as Kirby Elementary District 140, serving students in areas of Tinley Park, Orland Hills and Orland Park, expect to continue having remote learning as an option, if for no other reason than some families might decide it’s too risky to send their child back to school.
Superintendent Shawn Olson said some parents at a recent meeting said they won’t send their children back if they are required to wear a mask. The district serves about 3,500 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Based on the Illinois Department of Public Health advice, ISBE is telling schools that students, faculty and anybody else wear a mask while inside school buildings and maintain a 6-foot separation where possible.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is distributing 2.5 million cloth masks to schools around the state, according to ISBE.
While the state board is leaving the particulars of reopening up to individual districts, Olson said that the wearing of face coverings in the district’s seven schools will be required.
“Masks are not negotiable,” he said. “That’s something we don’t have a choice on.”
The meeting was held in the gymnasium of Grissom Middle School, with about 100 people taking part via Zoom along with a smattering of residents who physically attended.
While the blended model that mixes in-person classroom time with remote learning is an option, the state board’s “main goal is to get us back into school, back into the building,” Olson said.
He said the district sent out surveys to all families, with 1,232 responding, and 93% of those saying they were likely, or somewhat likely, to send their children back to school, and 7% saying they would keep their children at home.
District 140 teachers and staff were surveyed, and of the 630 employees, 455 responded, with 89% saying they were comfortable or somewhat comfortable returning to school.
The abrupt shift to remote learning was a burden early on in the pandemic for parents who were working, and ISBE notes that, statewide, 700,000 school-age children, 12 and under, live in households where parents work and need child care.
Homewood-Flossmoor High School District 233 officials also point out that many of the school’s teachers have school-age children, and that if the districts where the children go to school use a mix of remote and in-person education that could affect H-F’s staffing levels.
Getting students to and from school, let alone social distancing while they’re inside the building, presents another set of challenges.
At Orland Elementary District 135, which serves more than 5,000 students at 10 schools, students will undergo symptom and temperature checks before getting on the bus in the morning, and buses will be limited to a capacity of no more than 50 students, according to Jerry Hughes, the district’s director of risk management and safety.
Students will need to wear masks on school buses unless there is a medical reason they cannot, and buses will be cleaned after each route and regularly disinfected, said Hughes, former deputy police chief in Orland Park. The bus companies that serve the district will also require drivers to don a mask and certify they’re symptom-free.
Rather than kids piling off the bus, districts also need to keep separation in mind as students are being dropped off and accommodate students arriving by bus as well as kids being dropped off by car or walking to school.
And on that first day back, despite the temptation to do so, the state is highly recommending that teachers and students “should abstain from physical contact such as handshakes, high fives and hugs.”
Lunchtime to have a new look
District 135 said that its foodservice vendor is revamping student lunches, based on ISBE guidelines, eliminating self-serve options in the cafeteria such as salad and fresh fruit bars and adding more grab-and-go meal options, although there will still be a hot meal option each day.
The state recommends that students be served all cafeteria items rather than helping themselves, and suggests that meals be delivered to classrooms, or students eat outside if possible.
If meals are eaten in a classroom, the state board suggests the room be disinfected before class resumes.
Passing periods between classes are another issue, with the state suggesting hall monitors to limit how many people are in a hallway at a given time, and even washroom monitors to limit how many people are in the bathroom.
ISBE’s recommendations include implementing a homeroom system where students stay put while teachers in different subjects rotate in an out of the room, or hold classroom activities outside whenever possible.
Similar changes are being implemented at Archdiocese of Chicago schools, where children over the age of 2 and school employees will have to wear masks. Students will also be assigned to groups corresponding to their homeroom class, and stay with those students throughout the day, though remaining physically distant.
Schools will put in place new drop-off and pickup procedures for students, as well as altered walking routes within buildings.
ISBE also recommends suspending the use of lockers, and Olson said his district will require students to rely on backpacks.
“We don’t have enough lockers” to socially distance, Olson said at the meeting.
Physical education is another area of daily school life that will be upended, with locker rooms and showers being off-limits, and students taking part in adapted, socially distant activities that don’t require changing out of street clothes.
For choir and music, the state board recommends students continue to wear face coverings while singing, and that musicians can “remove their masks during the time they are playing, but only if necessary.” Conductors are encouraged to wear glasses or goggles or install a clear shield while remaining at least 10 feet away from the first row of singers or musicians, according to the guidelines.
Leaders of the state’s teachers unions said they were concerned about schools having enough protective equipment and whether social distancing could be maintained.
Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin said anxiety remains high over class sizes and the lack of school nurses and other health and safety resources.
Area high school districts, including Bremen 228, which has schools in Country Club Hills, Midlothian, Oak Forest and Tinley Park, are working on plans that incorporate recommended safeguards.
Community colleges such as Prairie State in Chicago Heights and South Suburban in South Holland will use a blended system of mostly online classes, although some courses that require lab work will have students in the school.
Separately, Governors State University in University Park is looking at various options including face-to-face, remote learning and a mix of both.
Through federal stimulus funds there is the promise of reimbursement to schools for costs incurred maintaining safe environments, with daily disinfecting of virtually everything in a school building certain to add to maintenance costs.
Districts 135 and 140, for instance, are investing in portable devices that dispense a fine mist of hospital-grade disinfectant to clean classrooms and other areas.
District 135 Superintendent John Bryk said there will be a budget presentation for the school board at its meeting next month, but that the district is already facing a $4 million budget deficit, which will mean tapping into a reserve account.
He said that it would be “educated guessing at this point” to what spending might look like due to COVID-19, and there is little wiggle room in trying to squeeze savings elsewhere, as about 75% of the budget is locked in for employee salaries and benefits.
For the school year that just ended, total spending had been budgeted at $83 million.
Bryk said that finances could be further constrained as it’s likely the district, and perhaps other districts, could be faced with property tax appeals that could impact revenue.
The south and southwest suburbs were being reassessed this year, and the Cook County assessor’s office has said that reassessments for townships including Bloom, Bremen, Orland, Rich, Thornton and Worth will reflect an estimate of how property values were affected by the coronavirus. Adjustments would affect second installments for the 2020 tax year payable in the summer of 2021.
mnolan@tribpub.com
