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3/21/2022

Dear IB families,

For the last two years, our district's efforts have focused on doing everything to keep all of our students and staff as safe as possible as we faced the worst public health crisis of our time. There was no playbook for how to handle a pandemic. As you know, disaster proclamations, mandates, executive orders, and guidance from many entities (e.g., Illinois Department of Health, Peoria County/City Health Department, Centers for Disease Control, Illinois State Board of Education, etc.) have constantly changed and evolved with time. We have tried to make the best decisions possible based on the information provided at the time. However, decisions were always made with our students, staff, and families health, safety, and well-being in mind.

Here is a just a sample of things our district has done during this public health crisis:

• Implemented additional cleaning and disinfecting practices
• Purchased UVC disinfecting machines for each school
• Installed an air purifier in every classroom and office
• Provided hand sanitizer stations throughout our schools
• Made important upgrades to the HVAC system
• Provide face masks, free of charge, to anyone who wants one
• Invested in a full-time registered nurse and a full-time social worker 
• Created a social-emotional interventionist position
• Implemented an after-school program in the elementary school, and provided a comprehensive summer school program K-12 to help close learning gaps
• To help facilitate remote learning, we provided free Internet wireless hot spots to families in need
• During the start of the pandemic when everyone was forced into a lockdown, our school partnered with a local church to create a maintain a food bank
• Since last school year, we have provided a breakfast and lunch to any student who wants one at no cost
• Last summer, we also delivered meals to students at their homes free of charge
• We started an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) designed to provide our employees with counseling
• We were the only local school district that provided free COVID-related sick days to all of our employees during the 20-21 school year
• We continue to provide on-site rapid testing at no cost for any student or staff member
• During the mandatory school closures, we continued to pay all of our support staff and coaches
• We provided free child care for employees during periods of remote learning if they wanted to work from school, but we also allowed our employees to work from home
• We made the weekly unvaccinated staff testing protocol as easy as possible by providing it onsite at no charge
• Flu shots were made available free of charge for any employee
• The district hosted several COVID-19 vaccination clinics

Our district leadership team has collaborated with local health professionals and neighboring school districts throughout this public health crisis. We have worked closely with our teacher union and support staff union to develop our return to school plan, policies, procedures, and mitigation strategies. We continuously sought to keep open lines of communication with parents and have tried to be as transparent as possible. We have communicated frequently and consistently utilizing all of our communication channels to keep you informed. 

Since March of 2020, the administrative team and school nurse have participated in weekly virtual meetings with the Regional Office of Education, the Peoria County/City Health Department, and administrators from every school district in Peoria County. Each meeting included a review of new guidance, discussions on how to best approach mitigation efforts, and information sharing on how other school districts are implementing policies, procedures, and mandates. We have taken a holistic approach to decision-making, but many decisions were out of our control because of mandates or public health guidance. When it makes sense or guidance allows for it, we have and will continue to relax policies, procedures, and mitigation measures. 

Two years later, it is easy to look back, second-guess, and even criticize what has been done and how it has been done. We started in June in 2020 with 60 pages of guidance provided to us by the Illinois State Board of Education. Since that time, we have communicated over thirty-five district level pieces of communication as the guidance continuously evolved. We also adjusted our own policies and mitigation efforts based on the updated guidance. For example, our original return to school plan in the Fall of 2020 was over thirty pages in length - our most recent update resulted in the plan being reduced to one page. 

I am incredibly proud of all of our stakeholders in how we have navigated this public health crisis together. Our school district appreciates the tremendous support we have received from parents and our community. Our teachers, support staff, and administrators have worked under challenging, and stressful conditions but have done a phenomenal job. They have genuinely been warriors for all of our students. 

There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel with vaccinations and testing. We hope to return to as much of a normal school year as possible next year. However, we are still not out of the woods completely. As we progress toward the grim milestone of nearly 1 million deaths in our country due to COVID, there is one thing for sure – this virus has proven to be unpredictable and resilient. There is a new COVID Omicron variant called BA.2, which appears to be much more transmissible than previous variants. Our district will continue to make decisions that we feel are safe for kids, safe for employees, and safe for visitors. These decisions will be based on guidance and the law as it applies to our school district. 

I sincerely thank you for your efforts at home and in your communication and interaction with the school to keep in-person learning a longstanding reality as we continue to navigate this public health crisis. I encourage us all to continue to lift each other up for the benefit of our children.

Sincerely,

Dr. Roger Alvey
Superintendent