2 southwest IL school districts keep plans that involve sending kids back to classroom

Two elementary school districts in St. Clair County will continue with hybrid learning plans after the St. Clair County Health Department encouraged — but did not mandate — that schools consider going fully remote to start the school year.

Freeburg 70 and St. Libory 30 both held special board meetings Monday night to discuss the recommendation, before electing to move forward with plans that include both online and in-person learning days for students.

The health department’s recommendation on Friday cited the spike in St. Clair County’s COVID-19 cases, along with an increase in the number of school-aged children who were testing positive.

On Monday, St. Clair County recorded 32 new cases, its smallest increase in new coronavirus cases in a month. The previous week, on Aug. 3, the county recorded its highest one-day increase with 108 new virus cases.

Public input

Freeburg 70 live-streamed its board meeting for internet users. In addition to 10 people who gave public comments in-person, there were 290 in the Zoom call at one point.

Both in the public comments and the online chat available to those viewing the meeting, the overwhelming majority supported the district continuing its hybrid plan.

“Our children need their peers, even if it is socially distant,” Sarah Gagen, a kindergarten teacher in Freeburg 70, told the board. “I need to see my students in person. I need to teach them how to learn, and I can do that best in person.”

Gagen said she felt the hybrid schedule would keep students safe, and that she felt safer going to school than to places like the grocery store.

Students in Freeburg 70 will be split into A and B groups, with each attending school in-person two days a week. Wednesday will be a remote learning day for all students.

Families have the option to keep their student home for fully remote learning.

Freeburg 77 and Dupo 196 are both holding special board meetings this week to consider the health department’s recommendation, but all of the other 25 districts in St. Clair County have made their decisions. Other than Freeburg 70 and St. Libory 30, they’ve all elected to go remote.

One public commenter said they didn’t think Freeburg 70 should follow in everyone else’s footsteps “just because that’s what they’re doing.”

How many cases?

Freeburg 70 serves seven ZIP codes. Because ZIP codes don’t line up with district boundary lines, many ZIP codes are served by multiple districts.

While there have been 993 positive cases so far in those seven ZIP codes, the numbers vary greatly. For example, 62255 (Lenzburg) has had 13 cases, while 62221 (Belleville) has had 393. 62221 is split between six elementary and one unified school districts.

St. Libory 30 serves five school ZIP codes, which have a combined 119 positive cases as of Monday.

“We’re going to continue to watch the numbers,” St. Libory 30 Superintendent Thomas Rude said in an interview. “If we get more, specifically in our area, we will revisit it. It’s not a forever decision.”

St. Libory 30 had 68 students enrolled in 2019.

“We’re a small enough district, that they were not overly concerned about the new information,” Rude said.

East St. Louis 189 is St. Clair County’s largest district, and one of the first in the area to move to remote learning, two weeks before the health department’s recommendation. On July 22, the day before Superintendent Arthur Culver made his recommendation, there were 1,228 cases in the nine ZIP codes served by the district.

How it will work

In the St. Libory 30’s hybrid plan, odd grades will do in-person learning on Mondays and Thursdays and even grades will do in-person learning on Tuesdays and Fridays. Kindergarten students will do in-person learning on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

All students will do remote learning on Wednesdays.

Freeburg 70 board member Ron Humphries expressed some concerns with having in-person learning.

“I have concerns over hallway traffic. I have concerns over playground activity,” he said. “… I understand the benefit [of in-person learning] is huge. We can do a lot more now with remote learning.”

Freeburg 70 and St. Libory 30 both feed into Freeburg High School 77. The high school’s board is meeting Tuesday night to discuss the recommendation .

Belleville 118, Millstadt 160 and Smithton 130 also feed into Freeburg 77. They have all elected to start the year fully remote.

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 11:11 AM.