District 113 will remain in in-person learning on Wednesday, January 5 and will continue to remain in-person as long as the schools are able to operate.
As of the time of this email, results have come back for 90 percent of the 1,128 SHIELD tests given yesterday. Those results indicate that 66 persons tested positive (6.5 percent positivity for that day’s test). Affected persons were discreetly notified if they were in school and they are isolating according to the current Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education rules. Today we were told by the health department that we can remain in school while contact tracing provided we are masking.
It is important that we do everything we can to remain in person for school. To ensure there was adequate coverage of classes, I was among licensed district administrators substituting, and I observed firsthand how important it is for students to be in school.
I received many, many emails asking why we were in school while awaiting test results. Students were also asking me in class. To respond to all those emails, as a matter of risk management, the path that has the least risk of transmission in school is not being in school but that is not good for students. To be in person in school, we have to manage risk, and to manage risk we rely on mitigations: vaccination coverage rates, masking, social distancing, removing from the school population individuals who have tested positive. The reality is that we have been SHIELD testing all year and students and staff have been in the school population awaiting test results, and for all those weeks we relied on our layers of mitigation to reduce transmission. My experience in the classes I covered today was evidence that managing risk through mitigations so we can remain in school and in person is the best path for our students.
It goes without saying at this point that there is an element of unpredictability in the pandemic that can result in events that cause us to change what we are doing, sometimes quickly, and usually not at an ideal time. Until such an event happens that prevents us from operating, District 113 schools will remain in person.
The adaptive pause for students in extracurricular activities and athletics will be lifted for students who can provide a negative result from an outside test or if they SHIELD tested on Monday and have not been contacted by the District 113 COVID Response Team. Students who did not test on Monday or who cannot provide a negative test result will continue in adaptive pause until a negative test result comes back. The requirement for all students currently participating in extracurricular activities and athletics to SHIELD test regardless of vaccination status remains in effect for eligibility.
Please know that District 113 will only contact persons who have a positive test result.
The Coordinator of COVID Response will send an email to everyone once all test results from Monday are back and all persons who tested positive have been contacted.
