Notes and News: December 7th Return to School
Published by Mr. Callis on Dec 03, 2020

District 106 Community:

After careful consideration and many discussions between the leadership staff and the board of education, District 106 students will return to in-person learning with COVID-19 mitigations on December 7th. 

The Middle School daily schedule will return to the five days of instruction model utilized prior to the adaptive pause.  Students and Parents should see no changes to previous schedules.  

The Elementary School will implement an intentional mitigation strategy by moving into an A-B-A-B-A/B schedule to ensure six-foot social distancing. All changes to schedules will be reflected on Schoology and the district website. The duration of this version of our hybrid schedule is unknown at this time but D106 will make every effort to return students to five-day in-person instruction as soon as possible.

While local zip code metrics have increased since the holiday weekend, the adaptive pause has achieved the desired result of reducing in-district cases and stabilizing staffing, allowing a return to in-person learning.  Parents with concerns about our return have the option to keep their children at home to learn remotely. Full remote classes will not be impacted by these changes.

The goal to keep children in school is shared by all and we want to reiterate that we cannot do this alone.  It is imperative that we work together towards the bigger picture; if we do this, we have confidence that we will achieve this goal. To that end, we urge each and every person in our Highlands community to do the necessary things away from school, especially as the holiday season approaches, that will help keep our kids in the building and learning at the highest level. This includes following the safety protocols in the community, self-quarantining when necessary and adhering to the daily health check-in requirements. Updated procedures regarding self-certification, quarantine timelines, and self-quarantine procedures following travel will be communicated in the coming days. 

With the shared goal of providing the highest level of education in the safest environment possible, the leadership team will continue to monitor all of the factors that led to this decision and address any further need for mitigation accordingly.  More changes may be communicated moving forward, including minor shifts to the school calendar.  We will provide as much notice as possible to both staff and families when adjustments are necessary.  Thank you for your patience during this process.  

Sincerely,

D106 Leadership Team