DeKalb 428 to return to classroom in February

In a brief presentation to the DeKalb District 428 school board on Tuesday, interim superintendent Griff Powell laid out the latest return to learn plan for the district, with target dates starting Feb. 1.

“We fully expect some challenges given our staffing limitations,” Powell said. “But we are convinced that in-person learning is in the best interest of our students.”

School districts across the county went back to some form of in-person school on Tuesday after the DeKalb County Health Department’s adaptive pause that was instituted in November expired.

With a positivity rate of 14% in the county, DeKalb decided to stay in the pause. But that positivity rate dipped into the eights last week and was at 9.7% on Saturday, the last day data available due to a three-day lag.

Some special-needs students returned to in-person on Tuesday, Powell said. Under the latest plan, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first and second graders will return on Feb. 1. On Feb. 8, third, fourth and fifth graders will return.

Sixth and ninth graders will return on Feb. 16 and 17.

“Sixth and ninth-graders will have two days to be acclimated to their new schools,” Powell said. “They’ve never been in their new schools.”

All other middle and high schoolers will return on Feb. 18 and 19.

The plan is a hybrid schedule, with classes being simultaneously taught to in-person and at-home children, with students alternating every other day.

“We realize that some people will be rolling their eyes and saying ‘oh boy, another set of targets,’” Powell said. “But we all believe the conditions here in DeKalb County give us a green light on in-person learning as laid out.”

The only board member to comment was Jeff Hallgren.

“I applaud getting back into school,” Hallgren said. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am we are doing this to get back as quickly as we can.”

Powell did allude to staffing problems, a big problem being finding substitutes when teachers are sick or having to quarantined.

Later in the meeting, the board unanimously approved a sub raise to $130 per day from $110.

“This may not solve the problem,” Powell said. “But it gets us in line and as competitive as possible. We hope that makes a difference.”