LaGrange Highlands School District 106

A Special Meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held virtually and simulcast on Youtube beginning at 7:00 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic and can be accessed here.

The agenda for the meeting is available by going to Administration --> Board of Education -->Agenda

District 106 experienced a power outage for about 1 1/2 hours this afternoon. Power has been restored and classes will be resuming as normal tomorrow (Tuesday).

The below video contains information regarding the adaptive pause which the school district will start on Monday, November 16, 2020.

Situations were brought to our attention late on Monday, November 9 that impacts our mitigation practice of contact tracing and our effort to keep students and staff safe in the school environment. These conditions are contained within the adaptive pause guidance and are something the district takes into consideration when deciding whether or not to continue in-person instruction. 

Also, I want to take a moment to help everyone better understand the numerous metrics our district considers each and every day, and how we are using that data to inform decisions regarding keeping our schools open or moving to an adaptive pause. 

Positive Case Updates

On Friday, November 6, and through the weekend, D106 had reported several positive COVID-19 cases and communicated those to you via email.  Like the rest of Illinois and our region, we are seeing an increase in positive cases. We know the number of cases is concerning however, we have had no known school-related transmissions. That means that all of the reported cases have been tied to events outside of school. Knowing what is happening outside of our buildings helps us try to maintain the in-person learning that we transitioned to on October 26. 

Close Contact Report - Monday, November 9

Yesterday afternoon, we learned of situations that could put our students and staff at a higher level of risk for an outbreak in our school setting. In these situations, D106 was not notified of positive COVID cases. Therefore, this did not allow the school nor the Health Department to implement the necessary contact tracing needed to notify and ensure that individuals who were in close contact quarantined to prevent the virus's spread. 

Regional Metrics Update 

What is an adaptive pause?  

An adaptive pause is a strategy that allows a school district to move to remote learning for a set period of time or an indefinite period of time as an entire school district, as a school wing, as a grade level, or as a classroom. There are many criteria that go into making the decision for an adaptive pause. In addition to the metrics, it is also important to take into account the school’s ability to implement the mitigation strategies, which include contact tracing. An adaptive pause can be made in conjunction with the Health Department due to rising metrics, a District can make the determination if mitigation strategies are not being followed and there is a risk to students and staff health and safety, or the Governor can make a proclamation and have schools learn remotely. 

This week was the beginning of the second week that Region 10 (Suburban Cook County) is over the 10% positivity rate. Under the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Interim Guidance for Schools (Adaptive Pause and Metrics: Interim Guidance for Local Health Departments, https://www.isbe.net/Documents/IDPH-Adaptive-Pause-Metrics.pdf), the IDPH recommends that local school districts examine the strategies they have in place to provide instruction when community transmission is increasing or substantial. 

However, community transmission is just one of the metrics we are asked to examine when considering whether to continue with in-person instruction or to pivot to remote instruction, either by classroom or throughout the District. 

Other metrics that are critical include, transmission rates by our local zip codes (60525 and 60558), transmission in the school community specifically, and whether containment measures (mask-wearing, social distancing, and cleaning protocols) are effective.  While the Suburban Cook test positivity rate is 10.5%,  the zip codes 60525 and 60558 just hit the 8% mark on November 5, 2020.  We monitor this local metric daily, as well as transmission in neighboring communities, and cases of COVID among members of our school district community.

Movement to an Adaptive Pause

Yesterday’s news has guided the administration’s decision to move to an Adaptive Pause officially starting November 16, 2020. We understand that this situation is not ideal for anyone, however, it is a necessary move. D106 families that want to move immediately to fully-remote learning will be allowed to do so before Monday, November 16. It is important for our families to know that this move to remote will not be a repeat of the remote situation in the Spring when this all started.  Our remote schedule will mirror the learning students and teachers have been doing since August. Should there be any changes to the schedule, it will be communicated through Schoology and the District website. 

During this pause, it is important to note, we need you to please continue to report any positive cases of COVID to the district nurses. As a district, we are still responsible for reporting any positive COVID cases in our community to the Health Department. 

We believe in and are committed to in-person learning.  We all agree that it is the best way for our students to learn. We are also committed to the safety of our students and staff and their families. Please know that the Adaptive Pause we will be observing is temporary based on our current situation.  While It is our intent to move back to in-person learning on Monday, December 7th, one thing we have learned is that information does change on a daily basis, and sometimes hourly.  

We will continue to update the community throughout the pause.  We cannot stress enough the importance of continuing to follow safety protocols away from school so that we can continue to provide in-school instruction. We need to work together to keep our students and staff safe in the school environment. 

This is not the news I wanted to pass along today. My original draft of this communication was to update our Highlands Families and staff on the current COVID metrics, what they mean, and to also provide insight on how the return to five-days of instruction was progressing.  This pandemic is a fluid situation and the circumstances brought to our attention last night are now the top priority of the D106 Administration and Board of Education. 

Thank you also for your support and understanding as we navigate through this. We know that this is a trying time for our families and staff.  We will continue to work diligently to share information with you as it develops.  We ask for your patience and flexibility as we continue to work through our instructional program that was designed this summer to provide an excellent education for our children and keep the safety of our school community in the forefront of our minds and actions. 

As always, feel free to continue to reach out if you have any questions.

Dr. Warke

How sweet!  Our 7th grade scientists examined the chemical make up and dissolubility of one of America's favorite candies, M&Ms.  Check out some of the reactions of M&Ms in water and be amazed with the colors that came out!

A Regularly Scheduled Meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Tuesday, November 17, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held virtually and simulcast on Youtube beginning at 7:00 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The Streaming URL is https://youtu.be/sdZe5dvgRvU 

The agenda for the meeting is available by going to Administration --> Board of Education -->Agenda

Option One

We will continue to have our comment form that began this summer. The Board members read each submitted statement. You can access that form by clicking on the link here and filling out the information and your comment. These comments are not read aloud at the meeting. However, each Board member does read the statements in this form. Please complete this form by Tuesday, November 17, 2020, at 4:00 p.m. 

Option Two

The new way to comment will be to join the meeting and talk during public comment. You can participate by completing this form. This form will stop accepting names on Monday, November 16, 2020, at NOON to prepare for the Tuesday evening meeting. 

• Please leave your name, address, email address, and phone number on the form. 
• On Tuesday afternoon, you will receive information via email to access the meeting through a video conference.  
• You will be admitted to the meeting by a moderator and have your microphone muted until your name is called during the public comment session.  
• The public comment period will be limited to allow the rest of the agenda items to be discussed in a timely manner.  
• Each individual will have a maximum of 5 minutes to address your comments to the board of education. Then you will be removed from the meeting and can continue to watch via the public stream on Youtube.

UPDATE: Schoology, while still reporting an 'active incident', seems to be coming back up for most users. Refresh your browser tab as needed to encourage things to reload.

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Schoology is currently encountering a partial service disruption. They are working to restore service as quickly as poossible.