To Our District 115 Families:
Last night, after careful thought and review of guidance from the Lake County Health Department, metrics on our own COVID-19 readiness dashboard, as well as local data, I recommended to the District 115 Board of Education that Lake Forest High School students and staff take an adaptive pause. The Board of Education has agreed to this recommendation.
In alignment with guidance from the Board, this decision will result in the following:
- Freshmen and sophomores will continue in-person e-hybrid learning.
- The expansion of in-person learning will slow temporarily. Juniors and seniors will continue their e-hybrid schedule remotely and return to the building at a later date.
- During this time, we will continue to serve students who need additional support in successfully navigating remote learning.
- The Administration and Board will reevaluate on a weekly basis with the goal of reinstating the slow roll of students back into the building when it is deemed safe to do so.
An adaptive pause is a strategy that allows for movement into any level of remote learning to prevent disease transmission during a pandemic. It also gives us time to observe the evolving data and better understand our own metrics. With this mind, the Board has asked us to reconvene at a Special Board Meeting on Thursday, October 29, when we will review the latest data and determine next steps. We will publish details about this meeting in the days ahead.
We have had a strong start to the school year thanks to our stringent health and safety protocols, careful attention to the preparation of our building, and the collective effort of our staff, students, and community. We have also known that at some point it might be necessary as a District to adjust our e-hybrid learning model to support local mitigation efforts. We are fortunate to have a remote learning model that works, and we have planned accordingly.
For now, I want to express my sincere appreciation for your patience, flexibility, and resilience as we adapt and respond to the ongoing challenges of this pandemic.
Thank you,
