Dear District 204 Community,
As mentioned in an earlier communication with the community, we know that the decisions about the governor’s mandate are within the court system. We have not heard anything regarding the stay of the temporary restraining order; however, we believe we will hear about the outcome of the appeal within this week. While we wait; however, we wanted to provide you with an update on our mitigation strategies.
On Friday morning, I had another meeting with the DuPage County Health Department (DCHD) to discuss mitigation strategies in schools. The DCHD did reiterate that school districts may consider a multitude of indicators when making decisions about masking and other mitigation measures.
Some of the indicators that should be considered include the following:
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Level of community transmission
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Level of COVID-19 cases identified in students or staff within a school
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Covid-19 vaccination coverage in the community
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Strain on health system
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Use of testing program for students
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Covid-19 outbreaks or increasing trends in the school or surrounding community
When the district created the metrics by which we would determine community spread, the metrics were focused on positivity level within the seven zip codes of our district and average cases per 100,000 only. At that time, vaccinations for many students were not possible. Now that we have vaccinations available for all students five years old and older, we must include that data point in making decisions about our continuum of mitigation strategies. Additionally, we must look at some of the other data mentioned above that the DuPage County Health Department feels should be considered in making any decisions.
When we examine our vaccination data via zip code, we find that we range from 72% to 90% vaccinated in the seven zip codes that serve our school district. That percentage is extremely high and reflects that a large majority of our community is fully vaccinated.
Additionally, over the past month, when we look specifically at the percent of students/staff positive while in our schools, that number has been decreasing consistently. We were at 0.49% positive the week we returned from winter break, and we were most recently at 0.28% positive the week of January 31 – February 6.
When we look at the positivity rate for our zip codes, that rate has been consistently in the moderate range (i.e., 5 – 7.9%) for the past week. Though the cases per 100,000 have stayed in the high range, those numbers have been dropping consistently for the past week with a high of 399 on February 2 to a low of 278 as of February 10. These numbers reflect a consistent trend that our numbers are moving in the right direction and that the work of our community is making a difference in addressing the COVID epidemic.
In light of the recent positive data, we will move to masks recommended and not required for all students in grades K-12 and staff. Early childhood students, those in our PreK program at all sites, will need to continue to wear masks because they are not able to be vaccinated. Though the TRO is focused on the families in the lawsuit, our data seems to reflect a positive trend, we can start to de-layer our mitigation strategies for all students and staff. Masks are highly recommended for all; however, they will not be required. Masks are still required of all students on buses as that is a federal requirement.
The mask recommended strategy will begin Tuesday, February 22 for all students K-12 and staff. We are starting on February 22 in order to provide time for all to prepare for the change and adjustments to be made as appropriate.
With this shift, it is important for all students and staff to know we are allowing people to make their choice and there should not be any questioning why such choices were made or bullying or harassing of people for their choices. We are a community of learners who celebrate our differences. We need to rebuild relationships as a school community and treat each other with the civility and kindness that we did prior to the pandemic.
In our July 19 board of education (BOE) meeting, we shared other mitigation strategies that will be in place. Though we will share more at the BOE meeting later this month, many of these strategies will still be in place to include the following:
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Physical distancing
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Handwashing
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Self-Certification
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Cleaning and Disinfection
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Ventilation
We will continue to monitor the data points mentioned above to determine if they continue on their downward trajectory. If we start to see a steady increase, we will then need to re layer our strategies and possibly bring masks back as a strategy. We will also continue to examine the best practices from CDC, IDPH and the DuPage County Health Department. More details will be shared at the next BOE meeting with specifics to this plan.
Depending upon the appeal decision of the TRO, we will evaluate our decision; however, at this time, we will be masks recommended and not required.
I always said we would review our plan throughout the year. What was proposed and approved in July needed to be reviewed and examined in light of the reasons I mentioned above as well as the potential for the mask mandate to be removed.
Sincerely,
Adrian B. Talley, Ed.D.
Superintendent
