Oswego School District 308 safety plan to be presented at Aug. 9 board meeting

The plan to get the students and staff of Oswego School District 308 back into the classroom will be revealed at the Aug. 9 meeting of the Board of Education.

During its July 12 meeting, the Board of Education voted 6-0, with one member abstaining, to make masks optional for students and staff while in school and required on school transportation. However, plans changed after Gov. JB Pritzker on Aug. 4 announced a statewide school mask mandate when pupils return to class.

The mask mandate brings the state in line with U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control guidance that says teachers and students older than the age of 2 need to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

The governor also stated that all high school athletes will have to be masked for indoor practice and competition, while coaches and athletes in outdoor sports will not have to mask because the rate of outdoor transmission of COVID-19 is low.

Following Pritzker’s announcement, Superintendent John Sparlin sent a letter to families and staff explaining that the district’s safety plan for the 2021-2022 school year will be presented as an information item at the Aug. 9 Board of Education meeting.

“The Governor’s Executive Order supersedes our plan and, while the order is active, it does require all persons to wear a mask while inside a school building,” Sparlin wrote.

The IDPH also announced on Wednesday that it was expanding free COVID-19 testing to all K-12 public schools in the state, paid for by additional funds from the federal CARES Act and American Rescue Plan.

Schools can choose to utilize the SHIELD Illinois saliva-based test developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which is able to detect SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and asymptomatic individuals.

The state also updated its quarantine protocol in schools, giving students and teachers who have been identified as a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case have a new option to test to stay.

Close contacts must be tested on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after exposure. As long as close contacts remain negative, they are not required to quarantine.

Schools looking for more information on testing or to sign up for SHIELD Illinois testing can contact Beth Heller at bheller@uillinois.edu.

The Oswego School District 308 Board of Education will meet at 7:15 p.m., Aug. 9, in the Community Room of Oswego East High School. Masks are required in school buildings for all persons, regardless of vaccination status.