After months of planning, reviews and discussions, the Homewood District 153 school board unanimously gave the green light Monday to its back to school plans.

The school year starts Monday, Aug. 24. Two options were approved. Approximately 38 percent of children will be on a fully remote schedule through the newly created Virtual Learning Academy, and 62 percent of students will be on a blended schedule attending classes two days each week with remote instruction the other three days.

Students in grades 1 through 8 will be divided into two groups attending Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. Kindergarten teachers asked for a change to their schedules, so students will attend half-day sessions four days a week.  

Parents will be asked to monitor their child’s health before they get on a bus or are dropped off at school. Students will have their temperature taken before they enter the buildings. Students and staff are required to wear masks. 

Extra time is being set aside for hand washing. Classrooms are being emptied of some desks so that students have the six-feet social distancing space. Prepared lunches will be available and students will eat in the cafeteria and other spaces, to meet the social distancing guidelines.

The buildings will get deep cleaning at the end of the school day.

Superintendent Dale Mitchell said administrators worked with a 70-member planning committee made up of parents, teachers, administrators, board members and community representatives to put together the plan and answer as best they could all the requests and questions from parents and staff. 

Just before the board’s vote, Homewood Education Association member Maureen Daley reported findings from a teacher survey conducted the week of Aug. 3. The union has 274 members and 157 took the survey. Of those  97 now prefer a fully remote schedule, 36 approved of a blended model and 24 chose either option.

Daley acknowledged the faculty was surveyed by the district in early July on whether they’d prefer blended, remote or either option. At the time, the majority said blended was acceptable.

But with COVID-19 numbers rising in Illinois and in the Chicago area, Daley said teachers are re-thinking their earlier decision and the survey shows a high number now want the district to start fully remote. 

“More and more staff are becoming highly concerned for the health, safety and well-being of students,” Daley said. “Please understand this does not necessarily reflect the majority of our staff, but we felt it was necessary to voice the concerns of those who do feel we should start the school year fully remote.”

Superintendent Mitchell said, “I understand the quality of our 153 educators because I got to hire most of them.” He has been superintendent the past 18 years. He added: “I care about them as family. They’re my friends.”

Mitchell said these past months “have been super challenging and all I can say is I’m super proud of this team” recognizing the three principals in the district, assistant superintendent Scott McAlister, the technology department and others. 

School board president Shelly Marks said: “I know there’s a lot of anxiety over this. We are all feeling it – every single one of us. I just want to reassure our staff, our parents and our community that we will provide safe environments for our staff and our students and when we can’t and when it is no longer safe for our buildings to be open for learning we’re going to close them.

“I wish that I could give you a list of what that’s exactly going to look like,” Marks said. “We haven’t done this before. But I know we’re going to do it with care and thought and we’re all in this together. So, let’s give each other some grace and see what happens here.”