District 64 students will return to in-person learning beginning Monday, March 29, the first school day following Spring Break. Parents will also have the option to choose a full-remote learning option for their children.
This means District 64 will no longer offer a hybrid option for the 2020-21 school year.
In a letter to parents on Monday, District 64 Superintendent Eric Olson explained that safety protocols will remain even as the metrics continue to improve.
“The safety of students, staff, and their families has remained my number one priority throughout the pandemic, and that has not changed,” Olson wrote. “The level of safety we’ve had in our buildings has been outstanding, and it is time for us to take the next step.”
To make room for more students in classrooms, District 64 schools will reduce the distance between student desks from at least 6 feet to at least 3 feet apart. The distance will be determined based on the number of families who choose this option for each class. Everything else, from guidelines to protocols to philosophy, is to remain the same in terms of how we’ve operated this year, Olson explained.
“The Cook County Dept. of Health has confirmed we have everything in place that’s needed to reduce this distance,” he said. “On top of this, the metrics, both in our community and in our schools, are the best they’ve been all year, and we’re in a good place to make this move now.”
The district also announced it will offer a full in-person learning option and a full remote learning option for families for the 2021-22 school year. Starting next school year, those families who elect full remote learning will have dedicated remote learning-only teachers for their students. Teachers who are instructing in-person will not be instructing online students simultaneously.