Belleville 118 joins other southwest Illinois school districts to go full remote

Belleville 118 is the latest local school district to revert to all-remote learning as regional coronavirus cases spike.

Remote learning will start when students and staff members return from Thanksgiving Break on Nov. 30, and continue at least through the end of Christmas Break. Superintendent Ryan Boike said he’s hoping the conditions will be safe enough for in-person learning to resume Jan. 4.

“It’s disappointing. I’ll say that,” he said. “I’ve gotten back to all the schools since kids have been back, and it’s been amazing.”

The elementary district maintains a COVID-19 dashboard to track the number of staff and students who are currently positive or quarantined, as well as the number of those who have recovered or were released from quarantine.

District-wide, three staff members were positive as of Thursday and 17 are currently quarantined. Six students are current positive cases while 56 are quarantining.

Several districts in St. Clair County have started to roll back their learning plans as the “third wave” of the virus surges. Belleville Township High School 201 and O’Fallon Township High School 203 have also announced plans to move to remote learning. East St. Louis 189, who has stuck by remote learning all semester, recently announced that they were sending staff home to work remotely.