As COVID cases surge, O’Fallon high school teachers want year to start remotely

The O’Fallon High School Teachers Union is calling for District 203 to move to remote learning to start the year, citing the surge in COVID-19 cases in St. Clair County in recent weeks.

As it stands, the district’s plan is a hybrid model, with students having both in-person and remote instruction, and a shortened school day to control traffic in the hallways and cafeteria.

Monday is the first day of school.

“Even with recommended protocols in place, it is impossible to adequately protect the students we serve as well as the staff who committed to their educational success,” a press release from the teacher’s union says. “...Although we were hopeful our discussions would lead to in-person learning, our members no longer believe the district’s health, safety and welfare protections can adequately shield students and teachers alike.”

Superintendent Darcy Benway said in an email that the school board and administration will “engage in discussions on a possible shift to remote per the union’s demand.” She declined multiple requests to speak with a reporter on the telephone or in person.

Union President Michael Day said the union emailed Benway on Saturday, after a two-hour union meeting and vote on Friday. He said the union and administration were set to talk Monday night.

At least two metro-east districts, Belleville 118 and East St. Louis 189, have announced they would start the school year remotely.

When Benway shared a draft of the plan with the board July 10, she said she expected students to be in classrooms two days a week. The plan was designed to move with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois phases, including completely remote learning or a 25% plan, with students in class one day a week if the region moves back into tighter restrictions. There’s also a 50% plan, with students in class two days a week, and 100% in-person learning.

Families can still choose to have their student learn remotely for the entire first semester, regardless of how O’Fallon High School begins its year.

Day said staff were “pretty optimistic” in June that the 50% plan would be safe, but with local cases climbing in July, confidence began to fall.

“Even with some of the accommodations that have been made, there’s still a great concern that we’re opening a school where rates are going up,” he said.

Since the first public discussion of the plan with the school board, St. Clair County has had a spike in coronavirus cases.

On Monday, the metro-east reported 188 new cases, the highest daily total of new coronavirus cases recorded since the pandemic began. The metro-east includes St. Clair, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, Clinton, Bond and Washington counties, per the state’s public health agency. The region averaged a positivity rate of 7.4% over the last seven days, which is higher than Chicago.

The teacher’s union also says that the district’s “refusal to develop and publish an option where quarantined teachers and those with immune deficiencies could work remotely calls the sustainability of these plans into question.”

Benway said “the Board can only assume that since some of the financial asks by the union leadership for additional leave related to COVID-19 were denied, the resulting vote occurred.”

District 203 shared a summary of the union’s positions with the board’s responses to them.

One demand from the union was a required two-week quarantine when a student or staff tests positive for COVID-19 or has a high-risk exposure to the virus, which the union defined to include classroom contact for any length of time. Under the union request, any days taken off to quarantine or because of a positive COVID-19 case would not be charged to an employee as sick days.

Instead, the board said they were willing to create a sick leave bank for the school year, which would allow employees to donate one of their sick days to be used by a coworker, if necessary. After taking sick leave through the 80 hours granted by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the employee would then use three days of personal sick leave and all remaining days of quarantine or COVID-19 sickness would be covered by the sick leave bank.

Day said the sick leave bank hasn’t materialized, after the administration shared concerns about what language would be used.

“Our folks agonized over this,” Day said. “They have a commitment to their students and the profession, but they also have a commitment to their own families.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 9:47 AM.