Guidelines for Inclement Weather Closing

Dear D105 Parents and Staff, With winter upon us, I thought this was a good time to share how we prepare for inclement weather.  Calling a remote learning day or canceling school is always a last resort.  It is our intention to have students learning in-person unless the weather makes it unsafe to do so. The decision to either cancel school or use a remote learning day will be made at the time it is deemed unsafe to come to school. My goal is always to make this decision by 9:00 p.m. the day prior to moving to remote or canceling school. However, due to the timing of a significant weather related event, it might be necessary to wait until early morning.  While in most cases, the District would move to a remote day rather than cancel school, several factors are considered when making this decision including: safety and well-being of students and staff availability of power, internet and overall operable condition of our buildings predictability of the weather timing of the weather events including time for staff to plan meaningful lessons  severity of the weather (extreme cold, excessive snow, flooding, etc.) ability of buses and cars to travel safely We seek to make decisions that are educationally sound. This includes considering whether students were sent home with a device the night before the remote learning day. Of course, we will make every effort to do so. If calling a remote learning day will help ensure more robust learning than adding a day to the school calendar in June, then we will utilize our option to call a remote learning day.   If a remote learning day is implemented, we will most likely utilize a late start schedule (9:15 for elementary and 9:00 for Gurrie). This allows teachers to adjust lesson plans to best support a remote learning environment. If a remote learning day is implemented due to snowfall and temperatures are not predicted to be too cold, staff will consider incorporating some optional outdoor learning/fun activities. In some cases, due to transportation or other needs, we might call for a late start to in-person learning. If this is the case, the timing of bus routes and the start of the school day will be communicated.  Making the Decision When determining if conditions at our schools warrant the cancellation of school or the need to implement our remote learning plan, I work in collaboration with: the Board of Education district administration other area superintendents, local village departments the bus service provider and the Illinois Department of Transportation Since we have many families with students also enrolled in LTHS, we seek to be consistent to create the least amount of family disruption.  This may not always occur, but please be assured it is a priority in our deliberations.   When school is canceled, all after-school activities, student events, athletic events and  practices, and field trips will be canceled unless specifically announced by the school principal. Notification About Closure In the event of a school closing or other emergency, parents and staff can expect to receive an automated phone call, email, and text via ParentSquare.  Emergency and closing information is also available on: The District and school websites, The District’s Facebook and Twitter accounts The Emergency Closings Center Sincerely, Brian J. Ganan

Thursday, Jan 06 2022

Return to School Information

Dear D105 Parents/Guardians, Happy New Year! I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season filled with smiles, laughter and great family memories. We are looking forward to welcoming your child(ren) back to school on Tuesday, January 4th.  As you know, a new COVID variant, Omicron, is causing a significant rise in positive cases across the country. This uptick in cases is evident in our attendance area. With that said, please take good care of yourself and your family. If you or anyone in your family feels sick, please stay home and get tested.  Just as we have throughout the pandemic, we will adjust some protocols and mitigations to ensure the safest environment possible. To the extent possible, student seating will go back to individual desks placed into rows.  In addition, classroom group work, carpet work and partner work will be significantly minimized. As we have in the past, students will use hand sanitizer upon entering and exiting our classrooms. Additionally, we are working on a system to increase social distance during lunch. We plan to continue these mitigation strategies throughout January as we seek to keep individuals healthy and lower the number of students required to quarantine due to infection or exposure.   Please know that we will continue to keep a close eye on our positivity rates. Our best indicator is actual data from our schools. In an effort to keep our staff and students safe and in-school, we strongly encourage enrolling your child in our Shield testing program. With the Omicron variant, we recommend vaccinated individuals also enroll in Shield. The Shield consent form is attached.  Per current IDPH guidance, to be eligible for the Test-to-Stay program, unvaccinated students identified as a close contact must meet the following criteria: enrolled in Shield demonstrate continuous and correct mask wearing exposure must have happened at school must be able to maintain physical distancing as much as possible, and masking at all times (indoors and outdoors) during the testing period able to test on days 1,3, 5, 7 after exposure remain asymptomatic and negative.  The CDC recently updated its quarantine guidance which allows a five day quarantine in some situations. Before making any changes, we need to wait for IDPH/CCDPH to respond to this new guidance. We anticipate their release of new guidance in the next few days. Until then, we must continue to follow IDPH’s exclusion guidance for schools that was last revised on October 18th, 2021. Please see link for the PreK-12 School Decision Tree.   https://dph.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idph/covid19/guidance/school/School%20decision%20tree%20exclusion%20guidance%2009.28.21.pdf As a reminder, learning remotely is only available for students who are isolated due to a COVID-19 related quarantine (i.e. positive test or close contact). However, in the event that we have mass infections within our staff and due to the substitute shortage, we may need to pivot to temporary remote instruction for impacted classrooms, grade levels, schools, or the District.  In other words, if we run into a situation in which we do not have enough staff, we may be forced to consider a temporary remote option. Furthermore, a shift to temporary remote learning may be necessary if we experience a student outbreak in a particular area.  Our goal remains to safely keep students and staff in our buildings. I realize this is not the direction we were hoping to go after the first of the year. However, as we have seen, this virus does not rest, and neither can we. We are looking forward to seeing our students back in school on January 4. We will continue to communicate post-break plans as new information becomes available.   Thank you, Brian J. Ganan

Thursday, Dec 30 2021