At encouragement of county health officials, Belleville public high schools go remote
The St. Clair County Health Department and East Side Health District are recommending school districts to consider remote learning to start the school year.
Following that recommendation, Belleville High School District 201 announced it would be switching from a blended learning plan to fully remote learning.
In a robocall sent to families, Superintendent Brian Mentzer said the administration anticipates remote learning would continue through at least Sept. 11.
Friday’s announcements came after St. Clair County was listed as one of the 13 Illinois counties at the high warning level for the spread of coronavirus cases for the third week in a row. The county had 4,282 coronavirus cases and 157 deaths as of Friday.
“We’re not saying schools can’t open. We’re not saying that at all,” said Barb Hohlt, executive director of the St. Clair County Health Department.
Hohlt and St. Clair County Regional Superintendent Susan Sarfaty said during the county’s daily update that districts look at their particular needs, including school size and layout, number and age of students and the size of classrooms.
Sarfaty noted the increasing number of cases for children and adults under 40, saying those were their students and parents.
“This is not an easy decision for anybody,” she said.
There are 27 school districts in St. Clair County. Ten — including Belleville 201 — have already decided to move to remote learning, including some like Mascoutah 19 and O’Fallon 203 who changed their earlier plans for blended learning while citing the trends in St. Clair County.
In an interview, Mentzer commended the work of district and building administrators, teachers, staff, custodians and members of all of the unions over the summer.
“They have just done an amazing job, and we will be ready [for in-person learning] whenever our health department data steers us in that direction.,” he said. “We’re going to be excited about it. This very difficult process has shown a lot about what our district is made of.”
Another nine districts are planning on using a hybrid or blended learning system, according to the most recent plans available on the districts’ websites and social media pages. These plans largely break students into A and B groups that alternate between learning in-person and learning remotely from home.
Eight districts had announced plans to continue with in-person learning with a shortened school day to further limit contact between students.
Remote learning
- East St. Louis 189
- Belleville 201
- Mascoutah 19
- Belleville 118
- O’Fallon 90
- Cahokia 187
- O’Fallon 203
- Central 104
- Grant 110
- Brooklyn 188
Hybrid/ blended learning, with a fully remote option
- Whiteside 115
- Dupo 196
- Freeburg 70
- Freeburg 77
- Shiloh 85
- Lebanon 9
- Smithton 130
- New Athens 60
- St. Libory 30
In-person learning, with a fully remote option
- Belle Valley 119
- Harmony-Emge 175
- Wolf Branch 113
- Millstadt 160
- Pontiac 105
- Marissa 40
- High Mount 116
- Signal Hill 181
This story was updated Aug. 8 at noon to include St. Libory 30’s return to learn plan.
This story was updated Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. to include Wolf Branch 113’s return to learn plan.
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 6:07 PM.