Belleville high schools plan to bring students back to the classroom full-time this fall

Belleville Township High School District 201 is planning for all students to attend classes in person five days a week beginning in the fall, the district announced Wednesday in an email to families.

Like many districts in the metro-east, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Belleville 201 students to resort to hybrid learning — which includes both in-person and remote learning — for much of the school year.

Superintendent Brian Mentzer said the plan could still be modified depending on what COVID guidance is at the time. August 17 is the first day of classes for freshmen, with all students attending on Aug. 18.

Masks and social distancing have been two standard precautions against COVID-19, both in schools and elsewhere. Whether both or either are required of students in the fall remains to be seen.

“That’s not our rule to make,” Mentzer said. “If masks are required and the current social distancing requirements are still in place, we’ll make modifications to our plan.”

New school reopening guidance was released at the state and federal level in the last several weeks. While the stated focus has been to get students back to the classroom this spring, there are strict social distancing guidelines that some educators have said are too restrictive for full in-person learning.

Mentzer said Belleville 201 will change course if there’s guidance that’s more restrictive.

“We’ve been extremely conservative. We’ve played by the rules,” Mentzer said. “We’ve been consistent with mask wearing and all those things, and we have shown our students, our families and our teachers that we want to do it right and we don’t want to put people at risk. We don’t want to forgo any of those thought processes.”

Belleville students who are at an increased risk of severe illness, who have special health care needs, or who live with people at increased risk will have the option for remote learning in the fall.

Remote or e-learning will look differently than it did this year, though: the curriculum will focus on core courses required for graduation and there won’t be a wide range of electives. Classes will have set days for synchronous learning, which is when a remote student receives live instruction.

Information to sign-up for remote learning in the fall will be provided in April. Mentzer said families will not need a doctor’s note to sign up for the remote option.

Illinois required school districts this year to provide a fully remote learning environment for students, if families wanted the option. Whether that option is mandated at the state level next school year hasn’t been determined yet.

Belleville 201 also announced summer school plans, which will run from June 7 through July 9. There are three programs: online courses for incoming freshmen, online courses for current students, and in-person courses for students who need to recover lost credits. Students can take up to four in-person classes at once, at either Belleville East or Belleville West.

Credit recovery classes are offered every summer. Mentzer said they didn’t know how many students would need to recover credit this year, but that the number is lower than it would have been, thanks to learning labs the district started to help students with extra support and give them the chance to rectify things they missed in the fall semester.

“We’ve made some pretty good strides this spring that will reduce the number of students who need credit recovery,” he said.

This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 2:35 PM.