West Aurora Schools Scrap In-Person Learning, Delay Start Date

AURORA, IL — Less than four hours after West Aurora District 129 closed the window for families to choose their pandemic learning plans, Superintendent Jeff Craig announced a final decision for all students: the district will revert to full-time remote learning for the first two months of the fall semester.

“It is with mixed emotions that I will be recommending to the West Aurora School Board that all students start the 2020-21 school year in a virtual learning environment,” Craig wrote in a message to parents, explaining his recommendation is “an effort to meet public health guidelines and keep our students and staff healthy.”

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District 129 officials are delaying the start of the 2020-21 school year by about week, with classes now set to start on Monday, Aug. 24.

Students will learn from home through Oct. 30, but teachers and staff will work from their classrooms and offices, Craig said. The district will start to “slowly introduce self-contained students and other special populations” back into classrooms starting in September, Craig said.

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District officials are expected to re-evaluate its learning plans on Oct 13 and finalize the “most appropriate” plan on Oct. 23. The district will implement whichever plan it chooses starting Nov. 2, which is the beginning of the district’s second quarter.

“Please understand that this is an extremely difficult decision and while we know many families and staff members will welcome the change, we realize many others will not,” Craig wrote.

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Forty percent of District 129 families with elementary school students opted for full-time remote learning, as did 31 percent of middle school families and 24 percent of high school families, Craig said.

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Due to the amount of students choosing remote learning, the district would need to hire about 55 additional teachers to provide a quality education for all students, Craig said. Conservative estimates show that would cost the district $3.3 million.

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Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued guidelines that encourage school districts to develop learning plans that limit the “frequent quarantine” of students due to coronavirus-related symptoms or potential exposure to the virus, Craig said.

“Since COVID-19 symptoms mirror those of countless other illnesses, this task would be next to impossible,” Craig said.

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Craig said the decision to return to full-time remote learning was also influenced in part by the Illinois High School Association’s decision to move higher-risk sports to the spring semester.

The IHSA last week moved football, boys soccer and girls volleyball to the spring semester. Boys and girls golf, girls tennis, cross-country and girls swimming and diving will remain as fall sports, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said fall sports will begin with competition limited to conference opponents and schools in the same general geographical area.

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