Palatine District 15 completes student re-entry, continues to monitor COVID-19 cases
Palatine Township Elementary District 15 completed its rolling re-entry of students Tuesday, and so far there have been no confirmed cases of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 within the district, school officials said.
There have been 19 positive cases of the disease among students and staff members, and three classrooms were temporarily closed to go to virtual learning since Sept. 28, Morgan Delack, the district's chief communication officer, told the school board Wednesday night.
One classroom was closed for two weeks because two people tested positive within a few days, Delack said. Those individuals didn't have direct contact with each other, but the district followed guidance of the Cook County Department of Public Health in closing that classroom and another that had integrated learning with the first, she said.
Classrooms also can be closed and go virtual when a staff member or others have been in close contact with someone who tested positive and substitutes are not available, she said.
"Even though our numbers are increasing, it's clear from the data that we have that people are catching this disease from outside of our buildings," Delack said. "There's no real evidence that it's being transmitted within our schools at this time. That's a reassuring fact considering we've been open for three weeks."
The district started welcoming kindergarten and special education students back to classrooms on Sept. 21, gradually opening its doors to more students in the last three weeks. Students in fifth through eighth grades and in early childhood blended classrooms returned to school Tuesday.
"It was very exciting to see," Superintendent Laurie Heinz said.
Junior high students have a hybrid learning model that combines virtual and in-person learning. They are divided into two groups, one with in-person classes Monday and Wednesday, the other Tuesday and Thursday. Friday is virtual learning for all.
The district had 554 preschool students and 10,968 students enrolled as of Sept. 30.
At the beginning of the school year, parents were given a choice between sending their children back to school under the re-entry plan or virtual learning for the first trimester or semester, based on their grade. About 30% chose virtual learning.
However, "as our rolling re-entry has continued, we have had many parents request to change their original enrollment selection from in-person to virtual," Heinz said in an email to families last week. More than 60 students in fifth and sixth grade requested a change in placement by Tuesday, the email said.
The district plans to solicit feedback about how re-entry has been going and figure out what the next steps might be, including any possible changes to the current model, Heinz said.