Geneva students return to classrooms Monday

GENEVA – Students in Geneva School District 304 returned to classrooms on Monday after a decision by the administration to reinstitute the hybrid learning model.

In a special meeting Saturday evening, Superintendent Kent Mutchler told the Geneva School Board that school buildings are safe.

“We have had no outbreaks in our buildings. We don’t know of any transmittals that are contact-traced directly to our schools,” Mutchler said. “So we feel safe to have kids in school.”

Spiking COVID-19 rates and worries of a new surge after the Thanksgiving holiday had prompted the school district to institute all-remote learning on Nov. 30.

“The thing we are simply doing is returning back to the model that was approved by the board for this fall,” Mutchler said.

The hybrid model combines both in-person and remote teaching, splitting student time between the two, while allowing parents to decide if they want only remote learning for their children.

Students attend classes in person two to three times a week and are at home in front of their computers on the alternate days.

On Dec. 1, a few days after Thanksgiving, area school administrators met with officials from the Kane County Health Department, Mutchler said.

Board member Michael McCormick asked Mutchler if the health department considers the return to hybrid learning to be appropriate.

“They said they wanted this to be a local decision and that they didn’t see a reason why a school district couldn’t go back in person if it has been working for them, Mutchler replied. “The governor has also made this a local decision.”

A new surge in virus transmission after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays could present the district with a tough choice for how to educate students in the second semester, Mutchler said.

“How long would we keep them in totally remote education?” Mutchler asked rhetorically.

“Our concern frankly is that if we don’t have them for these two weeks, we may not have them for a very long time,” Mutchler said. “Yes, this was an administrative call.”

The district has already sent out requests for parents to make their wishes known for the second semester, Mutchler said, and responses so far indicate there is a slightly increased desire for in-person learning, above the 88% that had opted for the approach at the start of the school year.

“We’re hearing it loudly and clearly from parents,” Mutchler said. Many staff members want to see a return to in-person learning as well, he added.

“I would assure people too that if the administration needs to a call to do an adaptive pause, we would certainly do that, say if there is an outbreak in a classroom or a building or across a grade level, then we would need to take an adaptive pause for a certain amount of time,” Mutchler said.

Over the last two weeks, 14 persons in the schools were identified as having tested positive for the virus, Mutchler said, including six at Geneva High School, four at the middle school and four among the district’s elementary schools.