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Huntley District 158, District 300 among superintendents anxious over lack of guidance for school reopening this fall

By Madhu Krishnamurthy - Daily Herald Media Group and Eric Schelkopf
Students head through the hallways to class Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, at Leggee Elementary School in Huntley, during the first day back to hybrid learning for Huntley Community School District 158.

Students head through the hallways to class Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, at Leggee Elementary School in Huntley, during the first day back to hybrid learning for Huntley Community School District 158. (Matthew Apgar)

With the 2021-22 school year officially beginning today, suburban superintendents are scratching their heads about how to resume fully in-person classes this fall without a relaxation of state COVID-19 guidelines for social distancing and quarantining in schools.

Forty-seven large unit district superintendents have signed a letter to the Illinois State Board of Education demanding further guidance on how schools can safely reopen. They include superintendents from Algonquin-based Community School District 300, Barrington Community Unit District 220, Harvard School District 50, Huntley School District 158, Woodstock School District 200 and Wauconda School District 118.

School districts across the state this month can expect to get guidance from the ISBE on what the COVID-19 guidelines will be for the fall school year, Illinois State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala said.

“We recommend planning for both looser CDC guidance and the potential that current mitigations will remain in place,” Ayala said in a response to the letter.

The ISBE in May adopted a resolution requiring all schools to resume fully in-person learning this fall, yet hasn’t provided any details on what COVID-19 mitigations will be required.

“Our schools are just going to have a real hard time meeting that 100% requirement with the current guidance,” said John Burkey, executive director of the Large Unit District Association and former superintendent of District 158. “There is none of those requirements for social distancing in public venues, but they are there in schools. We all want kids to be safe. We are not getting why there is still much more conservative guidance with schools than there is for the population at large. Our superintendents are just in a place where they have got to have schools ready in five or six weeks (in some cases).”

In her response to the letter, Ayala said the ISBE is waiting for guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health.

“We anticipate that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will issue its updated guidance for schools in early July, which will then allow the Illinois Department of Public Health to finalize and issue the updated guidance for Illinois schools,” she said. “While we all wish the guidance could come more quickly, we are hopeful that the CDC will provide additional insight into requirements for social distancing, mask wearing, and other mitigations that schools are taking.”

Ayala stressed federal and state health experts are monitoring the new, more transmissible delta variant, which rapidly is spreading among the unvaccinated. She cited a recent outbreak at a teen camp in central Illinois that led to more than 80 cases, and a secondary outbreak with more than 10 cases.

“These outbreaks illustrate that we continue to deal with a virus that has shown itself to be both deadly and unpredictable, particularly for those who are unvaccinated,” she wrote.

Elgin Area School District U-46, the state’s second-largest district and the suburbs’ largest unit district, has one of the earliest starts with classes beginning Aug. 16, and its superintendent, Tony Sanders, there’s not enough time to create two scenarios for school reopening.

“I don’t have a plan B,” Sanders said. “We’re a month away from the start of return for teachers and students. The large districts, especially, we can’t turn on a dime.”