As COVID-19 numbers climb, one southwestern IL school district is sending staff home

As COVID-19 testing positivity rates continue to climb in the metro-east, East St. Louis School District 189 announced Friday that its staff will start working from home Wednesday.

No date has been set for staff to return. Superintendent Arthur Culver said in an email to staff that work from home will continue until the data indicates it is safe to return to work in-person, full-time. He did not say what those metrics would look like.

District 189 has done remote learning since the beginning of the school year, citing the trending COVID-19 case numbers in St. Clair County and the particular ZIP codes the district serves.

As of Friday, 59 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, and another 72 have had to quarantine because of a potential exposure, including 20 this week alone. Another 150 staff members have been teaching remotely, due to underlying health conditions or childcare responsibilities.

Those staff members include 130 teachers, who account for about a third of District 189’s teaching force.

“I urge you to remain vigilant and practice safety and social distancing protocols while at home,” Culver wrote in the email. “The holiday season is coming and families and friends want to gather. Please exercise solid judgment and caution.”

Most districts in St. Clair County started the year remotely, after the county health department urged schools to consider it. In the months since, many districts have moved to hybrid learning.

The “third wave” of the coronavirus has seen upward climbs of cases in all age groups, including school-aged children. In Region 4, which includes St. Clair County, positivity rates have increased significantly in the last two weeks; the seven-day rolling rate as of Nov. 10 was 14.8%, far above the 8% threshold for additional mitigations set by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

IDPH publishes data every Friday to help schools make decisions based on the conditions of their county. St. Clair County is currently under warning, with three of the metrics being rates as substantial, and the fourth as moderate.

The data is a week behind. As of Nov. 7, the test positivity for the county was 10.1% — more than double the target of 5%. The county also reported 769 new cases that week, 82 of which were youth cases.

This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 8:00 AM.