Glenbrook Dist. 225 votes for pilot COVID testing program
The Illinois High School Association was poised to announce details about winter sports on Wednesday.
Whatever those are for a prep sports season set to run Nov. 16 through Feb. 13, 2021, they'll likely be shaped by something else starting Wednesday - the Illinois Department of Public Health's COVID-19 resurgence mitigations for Region 10, Cook County's suburbs that include Glenview and Northbrook.
Seven straight days of increases in positive test results, and eight straight days of increased hospital admissions, spurred the IDPH mitigation.
It also caused the Glenbrook High Schools District 225 board to act at its Monday meeting.
Though undoubtedly the language will be polished and the policy due to further negotiation, by a 7-0 vote the board carried a motion to approve a pilot mandatory testing program, not to exceed $125,000 for 90 days or greater, for students participating in moderate- to high-risk athletics, arts and performing arts, as board President Bruce Doughty and Vice President Peter Glowacki stated.
Voluntary testing could be expanded to students in cocurricular activities and staff.
The topic took an hour of consideration to reach a vote. Approval didn't initially seem to be on the table.
A couple of voices in the board room - which heard in-person, often emotional comments from visiting citizens for the first time in months - didn't think District 225 parents had "a burning desire" for testing, as board member Karen Stang Hanley said.
A survey distributed to parents since the Oct. 19 special meeting of the board did indicate widespread approval for COVID testing, particularly by parents of students in both school and nonschool sponsored events.
However, between the 1,075 responses received from an enrollment of around 5,100, and the number of students opting to remain at home under the current hybrid learning model, testing was perhaps unwarranted, especially at a projected cost of $532,400 for weekly tests of all students and staff the rest of this semester.
A thought also was to monitor data gleaned from testing efforts at New Trier.
And the debate began.
"A half-million dollars, (as) a percentage of our overall budget, is a rounding error," quipped veteran board member and testing advocate Joel Taub.
That seemed to get the proverbial ball rolling, albeit as a compromise to full testing. Board member Dr. Sonia Kim and then Glenbrook South Principal Dr. Lauren Fagel - herself in quarantine after a Glenbrook South administrator was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Oct. 19 - suggested focusing on more high-risk activities.
"This is not forever, this is not like you're going to incur an expense year after year for the next 20 years. This is an emergency," Taub restated.
Although there was a question about potentially lesser numbers of athletes depending on what the IHSA says about basketball and wrestling, both now deemed by the IDPH as "higher" risk sports, the board decided to act.
"Do we want to, for lack of a better term, focus on winter? Do we want to focus on spring, or do we want to delay for a period of time?" asked Dr. R.J. Gravel, District 225's assistant superintendent for business services.
"But I think we need to commit to where we want to go just so we can allocate our administrative and our staff resources in the best way possible."