Coronavirus: School Closures In Lake, McHenry, NW Cook Counties

LAKE COUNTY, IL — More school districts across the Chicago area announced closures Friday with many shifting their school days online starting next week. Below is a look at some of the school districts that have announced closures so far across Lake, McHenry and Northwest Cook counties:

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Lake County Schools

District 125/Stevenson High School:

Stevenson High School has cancelled classes on Friday and will begin providing instruction online starting next week as school officials aim to safeguard the health and wellness of students and staff and prevent the continued spread of coronavirus, school officials announced Thursday evening. A tentative return date following the prolonged closure of the high school is April 6. More via Buffalo Grove Patch.

Aptakisic-Tripp Central Consolidated School District 102

District 102 schools will be closed starting on March 16 with staff and students not returning until April 6 at the earliest. Students will get the day off on March 16 and e-learning will begin on March 17 and will continue through April 3. Students will have off from March 23 to 27, which is spring break. A full letter to parents from the school district can be found here.

Kildeer Countryside District 96

Community Consolidated School District 46

Community Consolidated School District 46 in Grayslake will close school beginning on March 16 and continuing through at least April 3, school officials announced Friday. "Closing the school reduces the incubation effect that occurs when hundreds of students and adults gather in the school on a daily basis," District 46 Superintendent Lynn Glickman wrote in a letter to parents. The days students are away from school will be a combination of emergency days, spring break and E-learning days, which are expected to start the week of March 30.

Northwest Cook County

District 214

With the hopes of mitigating "community spread," District 214 announced Friday that all of its high schools would be closed next week. The largest high school district is based in the same community as Northwest Community Hospital — the hospital where there have been several confirmed cases of COVID-19. Students and staff already have off on Monday and the district plans to use four emergency days for Tuesday through Friday and will close all of its schools. District officials plan to reopen schools after spring break on Monday, March 30. The full note from Superintendent David Schuler to parents is on the District 214 website.

Consolidated School District 15

School officials said expanded guidance regarding increasing social distancing measures led them to decide to close District 15 schools beginning Monday, March 16, and continuing through at least Monday, March 30. Read the full letter to parents from District 15.

Township High School District 211

At the end of school on Friday, March 13, all District 211 schools will be closed for students. There will be no classes offered at the schools beginning on Monday, March 16, through Sunday, March 29, at the earliest. March 29 is the last day of spring vacation. Staff will be trained to undertake e-learning days, which could start after spring break if the district makes the decision to keep its schools closed. Read the full letter sent to District 211 parents.

McHenry, Kane Counties

Huntley District 158

Huntley 158 will close all of its schools and utilize e-Learning days all of next week, March 16-20. In addition, starting Monday, March 16, all extracurricular activities will be cancelled through Spring Break, which will be March 23 to 27, and there will be no public access to our buildings during this time. Read the full letter to parents from District 158.

District 47

District 47 schools will be closed and e-learning will be implemented starting on March 16. School buildings will be closed on e-learning days and all extracurricular events and activities will be canceled for the foreseeable future. The decision to reopen schools will be made on a week-by-week basis. The full letter to District 47 parents can be found here.

District 155

District 155 will switch to e-learning from March 16 through March 20. Over spring break week, which runs from March 23 to 27, district administrators will assess "how our communities, county, state and nation are responding" to determine future closures, superintendent Steve Olsen wrote in a letter to parents. More via the District 155 website.

District 300

The school district closed two schools, Perry Elementary School and Dundee-Crown High School, on Thursday and Friday. A decision on whether to reopen those schools was expected this weekend. Thursday evening, Superintendent Fred Heid announced some of the district's schools and buildings may continue to close as potential cases of COVID-19 exposure crop up, the district will not be "closing all schools at this time." Moving forward, all events or gatherings that include more than 250 people will be cancelled. The full letter from Superintendent Heid is available online.

Send additional closures/cancellations to amie.schaenzer@patch.com.