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Tomorrow, January 3 is an e-Learning Day; Extracurricular to Begin Adaptive Pause | Mañana, 3 de enero es un día de aprendizaje electrónico; Extracurriculares para iniciar una pausa adaptativa

January 2, 2022 

Dear District 113 Families,                    Haga clic aquí para español

Summary
  • Monday, January 3 will be an e-Learning Day due to high number of staff absences and the inability to keep up the contact tracing required for the large number of student COVID-19 cases
  • District 113 will reassess conditions tomorrow and communicate following that assessment
  • All extracurricular activities and athletics begin an adaptive pause on Monday, January 3
  • SHIELD testing will be available at the schools from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m on Monday, January 3 and Thursday, January 6 
  • SHIELD testing for all students currently participating in extracurricular activities and athletics remains mandatory; see the website for transportation options
Due to the high number of staff absences and inadequate number of available substitutes and our inability to keep up with contract tracing due to the large number of student positive cases, District 113 will take an e-Learning Day on Monday, January 3. Students should check into Schoology at 9:00 AM for their teachers’ e-Learning assignments.
 
After sending out my email on Thursday and a reminder today from the District’s Coordinator of COVID-19 response, we have been monitoring staff absences. Staff have been reporting absences due to sickness, quarantine and isolation comporting with the current Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) protocols. These numbers have been increasing over the weekend to the point that we now do not have enough coverage for Monday, even adding building and district administrators to the list of available substitutes.
 
We have also been monitoring positive student cases over break. Last week, we had 67 total cases, up from 11 the previous week, and we cannot keep up with contact tracing which the Illinois Department of Public Health on December 28 officially pushed to schools to do because the local health departments cannot keep up with the number of cases. We need at least a day to try to catch up on contact tracing to ensure that students who have been exposed are excluded from school if required by IDPH/ISBE protocols.   
 
We will reassess tomorrow staffing coverage and our ability to contact trace positive student cases and communicate plans for operating school. 
 
We are doing everything we can to be in person for school. We remain confident that the layers of mitigations we have in place, 90 percent of students fully vaccinated, 98 percent of staff fully vaccinated, universal masking, and keeping social distance whenever possible, allow us to operate school as safely as possible while still coping with a pandemic. This decision is based on not having enough staff to operate school and on too many student cases to contact trace in a timely manner, not simply on high transmission levels.
 
The SHIELD testing centers in the schools will be open tomorrow and Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The SHIELD testing requirement remains in effect for all students participating in extracurricular activities and athletics regardless of vaccination status. Check the transportation page of the D113 website for details. Any student or staff member with a consent on file may test without an appointment when the testing centers are open. If you have not yet given consent and would like to do so, please click here for instructions on how to complete the form.
 
Due to an excessive number of positive cases on our athletic teams, all athletics are on adaptive pause beginning January 3.
 
We anticipate that athletes and teams can begin practicing and competing once negative outside tests are provided or SHIELD tests have been taken and processed.
 
Likewise, activities will also be on adaptive pause starting on January 3 until negative outside tests are provided or SHIELD tests have been taken and processed.
 
We are doing everything we can to remain in school, but like the rest of the US, we have hit a challenging time to continue operating normally. At this point, patience and flexibility are too much to ask, but we have to get through this. 
 
Bruce Law, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools