Prairie Grove School District 46 anticipates starting hybrid schedule Oct.13

Prairie Grove School District 46 hopes to go to a hybrid learning model, starting with its youngest students, on Oct. 13, according to an agenda for its Tuesday school board meeting.

The hybrid plan means some limited in-person can take place. Most school districts have it so students are remote learning and physically in the building for part of the week, then switch for the other part.

ECE/PK through second grade students will begin hybrid on Oct. 13, while third through fifth grade will start the new schedule on Oct.26 and sixth through eighth grade will begin Nov. 10.

With the plan, face masks must be worn at all times while indoors, classrooms will have students six feet apart, and staff and parents, on their children’s behalf, will need to self-certify daily that they are symptom-free before entering the school building.

According to a summer parent reopening survey, 25% wanted to go to a hybrid schedule, while 30% wanted full in-person learning, and 17% of all parents preferred a fully remote situation.

Data the district used as part of its decision-making process, the agenda stated, included information from the McHenry County Department of Health and Illinois Department of Public Health.

The McHenry County Department of Health is in the process of establishing countywide metrics that will help school districts determine their plans for the rest of the semester, including whether some form of in-person learning is feasible.

A draft version of these metrics was included in District 46’s agenda, including a 5-8% test positivity rate, and a 7 to 14 positive case per 100,000 people per day incidence rate. To go to a fully in-person learning model, the positivity rate would have to be less than 5%, with less than 7 positive cases per 100,000 people per day.