Staff Absences, Substitute Shortage Force District 113 Remote

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Staffing shortages and an inability to keep up contact tracing amid a spike in COVID-19 cases among students forced Deerfield and Highland Park high schools to shift to remote learning for a single day Monday, administrators announced.

"Staff have been reporting absences due to sickness, quarantine and isolation comporting with the current Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) protocols," Superintendent Bruce Law said Sunday in a message to families. "These numbers have been increasing over the weekend to the point that we now do not have enough coverage for Monday, even adding building and district administrators to the list of available substitutes."

According to the district's COVID-19 dashboard, there were 68 positive cases reported Monday at Deerfield High School and 56 positive cases at Highland Park High School, in addition to two cases among staff at the administration building and transportation.

Law said the decision was not solely based on transmission levels, which have been surging in Illinois as the antibody-evading omicron variant supplants the previously dominant delta variant.

In addition to staffing, contract tracing has also been a challenge, according to the superintendent. He said state public health officials have pushed schools to do contact tracing because health departments could not keep up with the surging number of new cases.

"We need at least a day to try to catch up on contact tracing to ensure that students who have been exposed are excluded from school if required by IDPH/ISBE protocols," Law said.

All athletics and activities have been placed on pause until either district-provided SHIELD saliva tests or outside coronavirus tests have been taken and processed, the superintendent said.

The superintendent said 90 percent of students are fully vaccinated, as well as 98 percent of staff. The SHIELD testing is required for all students taking part in extracurricular activities or sports as well as those who have not provided proof of vaccination.

The two Township High School District 113 campus returned to in-person instruction Tuesday while awaiting results from recent COVID-19 testing.

In a message to the community Monday, Law said 1,128 students and staff participated in SHIELD testing that day, compared to between 117 and 185 on previous days.

"The results from today’s testing will likely have a profound impact on operations," Law said.

With a regional test positivity rate averaging at more than 16 percent, the superintendent suggested Monday's testing could be expected to turn up 182 cases.

"We get SHIELD testing results when SHIELD sends them," he said. "Those results have come as early as Tuesday but sometimes as late as Wednesday."

District 113 administrators, like those of several local school districts, have noted that the emergency rules governing schools — established via an executive order from Gov. J.B. Pritzker — have not been updated to incorporate changes to isolation and quarantine protocols announced last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Law also asked anyone interested in reinforcing the district's supply of available substitute teachers to apply online.

The superintendent said there would be no hybrid learning options, but students in isolation and quarantine would, starting Wednesday, be able to tune into a live broadcast of their class remotely.

"The synchronous learning option we created at the beginning of this school year was not designed for the number of students in isolation and quarantine and is inadequate," he said. We are in the process of adapting to the numbers of student learning remotely by installing equipment in classrooms to improve the audio for students learning remotely."

The District 113 board has scheduled a special meeting Thursday evening. The only item on the agenda is an executive session discussion, with no further action to be taken that night. A district spokesperson said a board member would specify at the time of the meeting which Open Meeting Act exemption was invoked to allow the closed-door session.

"We are doing everything we can to remain in school, but like the rest of the US, we have hit a challenging time to continue operating normally," Law said, notifying families of Monday's shift to remote learning. "At this point, patience and flexibility are too much to ask, but we have to get through this."