D-205 Further Delays Reopening

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst School District 205 has delayed the return of special needs students to the classroom until the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.

At the school board's meeting Tuesday night, the school administration seemed set on bringing in special needs students Thursday. By Wednesday morning, online chatter was indicating that the school had postponed the return to Nov. 30. But a district spokeswoman wouldn't confirm the date of return until the superintendent issued a statement later in the day.

In the later statement, Superintendent Dave Moyer said the special needs students would return as long as a few conditions are met, including no coronavirus outbreaks in the schools before then.

School officials see special needs students as a population that is particularly vulnerable with remote learning. This group amounts to 200 students, or less than 3 percent of the district's more than 8,000 students. They will be spread out among a number of schools.

At Tuesday's school board meeting, members discussed the students' return just hours after Gov. J.B. Pritzker increased pandemic restrictions statewide. Meanwhile, many Elmhurst parents are calling for the return of all students to in-person learning. After a few weeks of a blend of in-person and remote lessons, the schools went entirely remote last month.

At the same time, Elmhurst and other towns are seeing a surge of coronavirus cases. Just last week, nearly 250 more Elmhurst residents tested positive for the virus.

At the meeting, Moyer asked whether the board was fine with the plan to bring special needs students Thursday in light of the new statewide restrictions.

Only member Margaret Harrell expressed opposition. She said the district should wait until the situation becomes clearer, given the new rules.

Officials identified two main hurdles in bringing special needs students back:

• The district's busing contractor may not have enough drivers available.
• The district has been unable to procure special KN95 pediatric-sized masks, which are required of some special needs students.

Board members Courtenae Trautmann and Chris Kocinski were the most vocal about returning students to in-person learning. Trautmann noted Kocinski's argument about all the building space available in the district.

"With the amount of space we have in our buildings and to have zero students in there on the explanation that they're not safe, it just doesn't add up to me," Trautmann said. "That's where I'm kind of frustrated."

Kocinski said serving special needs students is the "most essential service in our community, period."

Moyer said spacing out special needs students can be difficult.

"With some of these students and their intense needs, you really can't maintain the program and maintain 6 feet of social distance at all times — in fact, almost never in a lot of cases," he said. "We could get creative about space, but there are many realities of the students we are talking about that won't allow us to maintain the recommended distances."

Board President Kara Caforio said she wanted to get students back in school. But she worried issues such as buses may hamper the return.

"I just want to make sure we don't set them up for a big disappointment," Caforio said.

Except Harrell, no board member expressed outright opposition to bringing back special needs students Thursday. Members took no vote.