Majority of Dist. 303 families want in-person learning: survey

ST. CHARLES – While St. Charles School Dist. 303 students will switch to full remote learning next week in the face of a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the majority of families in the district would like their children to receive in-person learning next semester.

Students are on Thanksgiving break this week. During the School Board's Business Services Committee meeting on Monday, School Superintendent Jason Pearson spoke about the results of a survey asking families if they would like their children to receive in-person or fully remote learning during the second semester, which starts on Jan. 5.

As of Monday morning, the district had received 11,782 responses, which is a majority of the district's families.

"Interestingly enough, it’s pretty much tracking about the same way as it did for first semester," Pearson told board members. "I can tell you that for elementary, we have 23% that want to be remote and 76.8% that want to be in person. For middle school, it looks like we’re at 25% remote, and 75% in-person. And at the high school level, it’s 69% in-person and 31% fully remote. We are going to be using that information to put our schedule together and plan for second semester.”

In light of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the Kane County Health Department has asked all Kane County school districts to move to full remote learning until at least Dec. 4 and that athletics and other school activities also be suspended as well.

Dist. 303 school board members decided on an option for students to participate in full remote instruction from Nov. 30 through Dec. 18. Students will be on winter break starting Dec. 21 and school will be back in session on Jan. 5.

Kane County Health Department officials met Monday with school superintendents and the Kane County Office of Regional Education to provide an update on the situation.

“They are continuing the monitor the COVID situation in the community," Pearson said. "Unfortunately, it is continuing to rise. And so they expect to update us weekly on what their plan is.”