Valley View School District plans for full time return to in-person learning

Valley View School District 365U is planning to bring its students back into the classroom full time, five days a week for the upcoming school year.

During the district’s Board of Education meeting last Monday, Superintendent Rachel Kinder detailed the updated guidance from public health agencies for schools. While students will be back in classrooms, Kinder stressed it was important for the district to utilize mitigations to control the spread of the virus.

Return to school plans look quite different than they did a year ago as those age 12 and older are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine and community transmission is much lower. Public health guidance allows for less stringent mitigations while prioritizing children returning to the classroom.

“All throughout the past year-and-a-half, I’ve taken a very firm stance that we over-plan, that we are prepared as possible,” Kinder said. “And now knowing going into the fall, having strategies in place that we can essentially increase or decrease or adjust, allows us great flexibility.”

Kinder said she wants the district to be responsive to changing conditions in the event the spread of the virus increases or there’s an outbreak in a building during the school year. She also said she aims for more continuity for students and families, especially compared with the previous school year when she witnessed among staff and students while children largely were not attending in person until Spring 2021.

As with other school districts, Valley View is offering remote learning only to students with significant medical conditions and students who might be affected by exposure to COVID-19. Students who need to quarantine because they were exposed or infected also will have the chance to use remote learning, Kinder said.

“We will provide as much support as possible for students who are in that situation,” Kinder said during the meeting.

Kinder said the administration is in the “final stages” of determining what its mask policy will look like. She said the district might have “criteria attached to the expectation for either the requirement or recommendation for masking,” but also said such a policy could change if public health conditions such as the local positivity rate change during the year.

Kinder said the debate over requiring masks for children in schools comes with a lot of opinion and emotion. The topic has inspired parents in other districts to organize and push their local school boards to leave mask-wearing up to parents.

Several parents signed a petition arguing against a mask mandate in New Lenox School District 122. The Plainfield School District 202 board voted this week for a mask optional policy amid fervent arguments for it from parents.