McHenry County private school leaders say in-person learning is working, no reason to go remote

Leaders of local private schools told McHenry County Board members that in-person learning has been safe and successful for them, while many public school districts have chosen to heed guidance from the McHenry County Department of Health about returning to remote learning.

With much frustration and fear coming from community members who support in-person or remote learning, Public Health and Community Services Committee Chairman Chris Christensen said he invited the local private school leaders to Thursday's meeting for an exchange of ideas.

It's about "talking to some of the private schools that are having such success in keeping their kids in school," said Christensen, who represents county board District 3. "COVID-19 doesn't understand the difference between a public school and a private school necessarily, but I know the numbers can be different."

Dan Bertrand and Merri-Lynne Seaburg, co-principals of Marengo's Zion Lutheran School, told committee members they have not reported a single case of the virus among students or staff in the 54 days they have been in school.

"There is no reason why you cannot have kids in school right now," Bertrand said. "There is no place safer for a kid to be than in the schools. ... The virus is not being transmitted inside of schools."

Bertrand referenced a Brown University study titled "Schools Aren't Super-spreaders," in which data on 200,000 students in 47 states from the end of September was analyzed to reveal an average COVID-19 infection rate of 0.13% of students and 0.24% of teachers.

At Zion Lutheran School, parents were offered the option of remote learning if they were uncomfortable with attending in person and only five students are currently learning remotely, he said.

"Having that we just finished the first quarter, those kids who have been remote learning are doing significantly poorer, academically, than those that are in face-to-face instruction," Bertrand said.

Nick Satterlee, principal of Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic School in Cary, said his school has been following a "cohort model" to reduce the number of students exposed to one another, a model that has been used by many public schools trying out hybrid or in-person learning as well.

"A lot of it is coming back to trying to teach our kids a lot of the hygiene habits," Satterlee said. "If you hear me on the announcement every single day, it's a different hygiene habit each day which we're reminding on."

Ss. Peter and Paul has been open for in-person learning for 11 weeks now and has reported one case of COVID-19, but no outbreaks as defined by the county health department, he said.

Satterlee's school has offered a hybrid and fully remote learning model to parents who are uncomfortable with in-person learning and surveys parents monthly to check in, he said.

St. Margaret Mary Catholic School Principal Brenna O'Hearn said her school in Algonquin, has seen an improvement in the mental health and engagement level of students with in-person learning this fall compared with the remote learning months in the spring.

All three private schools represented are about the same size, with 200 students and average class sizes of 15 to 20 students, the three speakers said. Not present was Marian Central Catholic High School, which switched to a hybrid model this year after two cases led to about a quarter of the student body needing to quarantine.

County Board member Lori Parrish highlighted the fact there weren't any leaders of larger public schools in the meeting, which Christensen said was not done intentionally.

"The public schools are trying to make it work, and I would anticipate that they would be sharing some of the same things," she said.

Three Marengo-Union area public school districts have taken an in-person learning approach since the start of the school year and have chosen to remain in-person despite a recommendation from the county health department last week that districts consider a return to remote learning.

"It seems to me that you guys still care about your teachers, you guys still care about your students, and if it was an unsafe place to be, you guys wouldn't be open," Christensen said to the administrators Thursday.

The three private schools have been following the same Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines that public schools do, according to the speakers. They have required frequent hand-washing and also have been disinfecting classrooms daily through the use of "electrostatic foggers," which spray disinfectant over surfaces.

Zion Lutheran has employed some more high-tech solutions, Bertrand said. Each classroom now has a self-contained heating ventilation and air conditioning unit to increase the circulation of fresh air from outside. Their air ducts are outfitted with "ultraviolet light treatment systems" designed to kill germs as air flows through, he said.

Christensen asked the administrators about "staff buy-in" and how they have motivated teachers to get, and stay, on board with in-person learning as cases rise.

"Our staff have met the call," Satterlee said.

Bertrand said any resistance to reopening schools coming from public school teachers was really "a union issue," but later added that many of his staff were also "nervous and scared" at the start of the year.

O'Hearn acknowledged the current situation is taxing on teachers and said she has formed a committee of parents and teachers that has weighed in on the school's safety procedures from the beginning. This initiative has been crucial to increasing "buy-in" from teachers and parents, many of whom might have been wary of in-person learning at first.