LTHS Moving To Remote Learning

LOCKPORT, IL — Lockport Township High School will now begin the school year with remote learning, according to a letter sent to parents from Superintendent Robert McBride. Remote learning will begin on Aug. 20, after each group of students (as planned for hybrid learning) attend in-person classes on either Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday will then be used as a remote learning planning day, before full remote learning begins on Aug. 20.

The Illinois Department of Public Health issued new guidelines on Wednesday, and it changed protocols for the management of coronavirus symptoms, McBride said in his letter.

"These changes redefined 'close contact,' would require extensive COVID-19 testing capabilities, and call for much broader quarantine protocols," McBride wrote. He added that on a normal school day, 80-200 students at East and about 30 students at Central visit the nurse’s office with complaints of headaches, sore throat, and runny nose, all common ailments.

These are common symptoms of allergies, colds, and flu, but are also considered symptoms of the coronavirus.

"Under the new guidelines, anyone with these symptoms would have to be tested for the coronavirus and remain at home until they receive the test results," McBride said in the letter. "These guidelines call for procedures that a large high school district like ours cannot sustain during in-person learning."

McBride said remote learning will not be conducted in the same way as it was in the spring. Students and teachers will log in every day for a class schedule that will be from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and attendance will be taken at each period.

"While developing our hybrid plan, we continued to plan for the possibility that in-person learning could be suspended," McBride wrote. "We are fully prepared to provide full remote, live instruction. We heard the concerns of parents, students, and staff in the spring. Since then, we have worked to build a plan that would ensure strong connections between teachers and students, schedules and routines, better assessment of students’ academic progress, and additional support to students."