U-46 begins hybrid in-person classes for early grades

Bucking a regional trend of school districts reverting to remote instruction, Elgin Area School District U-46 began in-person classes Tuesday for 4,400 students in prekindergarten through second grade.

That's slightly more than half the students in those grades; the other half are learning remotely.

"Today went really well," U-46 spokeswoman Mary Fergus said Tuesday. "We had so many families, teachers and students comment that they were happy to be together. We couldn't see their little mouths (behind masks), but there were a lot of smiling eyes."

Students who chose a hybrid option are divided into two groups, with each group attending in-person classes two days a week and learning remotely the remainder of the time. All students receive synchronous online instruction on Mondays.

Several suburban districts, including Community Unit District 300, Des Plaines District 52, Glenbard High School District 87, Indian Prairie Unit District 204 and Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, either are halting in-person instruction and switching to remote learning, or are considering delaying the hybrid option amid rising COVID-19 case rates.

DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties have long surpassed an 8% virus case positivity rate and now have rates in double digits, forcing the state to impose even tighter restrictions on dining activities and social gatherings indoors and outdoors starting Wednesday.

In U-46, officials have been monitoring COVID-19 rates in Cook, DuPage and Kane counties. They've tallied 902 open (suspected or confirmed), 963 closed (cumulative number of cases investigated) and 374 positive cases among students and employees since mid-March.

District officials said they are monitoring the situation closely in concert with local health and education authorities.

"We've been working on our plans for months now," Fergus said. "They have been supportive of the decision for U-46 to implement our hybrid instruction given the safety protocols that we have put into action."

Fergus said officials are moving forward with the plan to allow more students into schools for hybrid learning in waves. Select groups of middle and high school students will begin in-person classes Monday while third- through sixth-graders move to a hybrid schedule on Dec. 1.

"We will keep monitoring the health data and we will keep talking to our county health officials, watching the positivity rate," Fergus said. "In this pandemic, we all must be prepared to make changes as needed."