Indian Prairie School District 204 is expanding its in-person learning opportunities at all levels. By combining the A and B-Day population, the district can now have students learn in-person four half days a week, as opposed to the two days currently in place.
“At the middle school level each principal had to review almost 400 classes in their building to determine if classes could be combined,” said Superintendent Dr. Adrian Talley.
He added high school principals took a look at over 1,000 classes to determine capacity limits.
New Guidelines to Allow Four Half Days
The decision to expand in-person instruction was based off of new health guidelines from the CDC.
The district will follow six-foot social distancing guidance, which limits the number of students who can learn in-person because of space availability.
“In our current state of being in substantial transmission we are following the guidance from the CDC and from DuPage [County Health Department],” said Talley. “When we move out of substantial we will very much consider modifying our stance on six feet and follow the language that is mentioned in the CDC, which says ‘six feet to the greatest extent possible’, which will give us more flexibility.”
At the middle and high school levels maintaining six feet is even more difficult since students are changing classes every period.
Deadline to Register for In-Person Learning
The district asks families who are interested in switching their student into in-person to do so by noon on Friday February 26.
D204 said if the in-person requests exceed space availability they would use a lottery system to select the remote students who want in-person instruction.
Looking Ahead
The plan is to start the four half-day schedules at elementary school on March 9, and begin phasing in the four half-day schedules at middle and high school on March 15.
Talley said the district is planning to have five days of full-time in-person learning next school year, and added the district is also planning for remote learning.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
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