COVID-19 Town Hall Amidst Record Numbers
Last night the DuPage County Health Equity and Access Response Team (HEART) hosted “Testing Positive with COVID-19: Now What?” The community town hall featured infectious disease specialist Dr. Jonathan Pinsky from Edward Hospital. He talked about what the community can do to protect themselves, treatments that have recently been made available, and that Edward-Elmhurst Health is seeing the highest number of patients, including hospitalizations, since the start of the pandemic. Edward Hospital is currently treating 122 inpatients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. 68 are not vaccinated, 35 are, and two are partially vaccinated. Data is not yet available for the rest of the patients. As of January 10, as per the City of Naperville COVID-19 dashboard, Naperville also had a record high number of active cases at 4,810.
D204 Votes on Boundary Adjustments
The Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education voted unanimously yesterday to approve a newly revealed, revised version of the boundary proposal. The administration recommended proposal was first introduced December 20. The revision reduces the number of students impacted by the adjustment, decreases the number of split feeders and evens out the balance of the remaining splits, includes more balance of enrollment and demographics, and works toward having a capacity of 2,700 students at each high school. 22 Ashwood Park residents voiced their concerns during public comment. Speakers criticized what they saw as last-minute changes, and raised concerns with traffic, commuting, and student social emotional health resulting from the new changes. The boundary adjustments will be implemented in the 2022-2023 school year.
D204 Grandfathering Option
The District 204 board also voted to approve a grandfathering option for students impacted by boundary adjustments. Rising fifth graders, rising seventh and eighth graders, and rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders will have the option to either attend their newly assigned school or remain at their current school. Transportation for grandfathered students will not be guaranteed. But district administration said they would try to provide as much as possible, and would notify families by spring break of what transportation provisions will be in place. However, parents must make the decision of whether to grandfather their children by February 11.
NCC Revises Athletic Events Attendance Policy
North Central College has announced temporary revisions to its attendance policy for athletic events on campus during the month of January. This is part of the college’s ongoing COVID-19 mitigation efforts. Only pre-approved home spectators for competitions at Gregory Arena will be allowed. Coaches and student-athletes from the hosting teams, as well as the college’s pep band and spirit teams can have up to four guests at each event. Student-athletes on both home and visiting teams who are not in uniform for their competition are also permitted to attend. Due to the track and field programs’ competition space, the number of participants in competition, and the need for teams to have camps and warm-up spaces, no spectators will be allowed at the January 15 Cardinal Opener or the January 21 Snow Day Invitational. The policy and its guidelines will be re-evaluated in February.
