Adaptive Pause gains traction in District 225 Learning and Operations Plan

Perhaps getting ahead of the curve during a pandemic climate that remains problematic, the Glenbrook High Schools District 225 Board of Education discussed Adaptive Pause Criteria at its Nov. 9 meeting.

Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South currently are in Step 3, Hybrid Learning in the district's Learning and Operations Plan. The district's goal is to continue to provide in-person learning, but an Adaptive Pause provides a transition should COVID-19 conditions worsen.

Depending on specifics of the situation an Adaptive Pause could temporarily bar high-risk activities, move learning entirely online, shift from a 50% hybrid model to 25%, and include other mitigation measures.

"We've used a bunch of them already," board President Bruce Doughty said of mitigation.

District 225 uses metrics gathered from Northern Cook County and Glenbrook ZIP codes. Criteria for going in and out of an Adaptive Pause - which did happen once on Oct. 9 - include positivity rate, new cases and numbers of students and staff who either have had new positive tests or are in quarantine.

If positivity rate and new cases are indicated as "substantial" for two straight weeks, Adaptive Pause may be entered. Those two metrics must return to "minimal" or "moderate" status to move out of it - and possibly also if school data doesn't reflect the surrounding area.

In the most recent data provided District 225, weekly new cases were well above even the lowest rate listed as "substantial" (100 per 100,000 people) and test positivity was hedging that way with Glenbrook ZIP codes (7.028%) still under the 8% threshold while Northern Cook County was at 10.3%.

A new facet of this conversation is COVID "outbreaks," at least five cases within 14 days spread by people in a shared location or who have close contact. These outbreaks would supersede the other metrics in possibly forcing an Adaptive Pause in a school's room, wing, the whole school or the entire district.

Board member Sonia Kim sought wording in the proposed Adaptive Pause document to limit such outbreaks to District 225 facilities or school-related activities. Fellow trustee Marcelo Sztainberg rebutted, feeling that an outbreak is an outbreak whether in school or not. Other board members focused on transmission in school.

In the end, before the board adopted the Adaptive Pause Criteria document with the inclusive language by a 7-0 vote, Glenbrook South Principal Dr. Lauren Fagel provided her boots-on-the-ground viewpoint.

"We don't try to determine where the transmission occurred when we learn of a positive case. Now, if we have a second case in the same setting we will operate, then, as if the transmission occurred in that same setting," she said.

"It doesn't really matter if it did or didn't because the outcome is usually the same. We err on the side of caution and do what we can to prevent further spread. Either way we're going to likely quarantine in that setting for sure, if you have multiple cases in a classroom. Sometimes even with one case in a classroom, depending on the situation," she said.