Good morning HBR Parents and Students,
The fifth version of our 2020-2021 Learning Plan is being released after receiving additional guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and entering into an agreement with the DeKalb County Health Department to locally administer BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Testing with staff.
As we did with previous version releases, we are providing the highlights of the changes in our document:
- On January 6, 2021 we received an updated decision tree from IDPH titled COVID-19 Interim Exclusion Guidance and an updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Schools. After participating in several meetings with the DeKalb County school district superintendents and the DeKalb County Health Department, as well as a meeting with the DeKalb County school nurses and the DeKalb County Health Department, it was decided that we would modify the exclusion guidance as noted in the modified COVID-19 Exclusion Guidance. Following these conversations and recommendations, we will adhere to a 10 day exclusion period for all scenarios except for the 14 day quarantine related to travel as referenced in the CDC updated COVID-19 Travel Recommendations. You will also notice a change in the third prompt in PickUp Patrol for exposure from 2 weeks to 10 days.
- On January 28, 2021, Hinckley-Big Rock CUSD #429 entered into an agreement with the DeKalb County Health Department to be able to administer BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Testing. We are currently in the final stages of being able to administer this test. The following additional language was added to our 2020-2021 Learning Plan on page 11:
- In order to maximize the learning for HBR students, HBR will utilize BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Testing with staff, and staff member’s children, who are symptomatic. Additional testing for all symptomatic students will be considered for possible implementation. If the test comes back negative, then the individual must meet the criteria for returning to school for the illness with which they are exhibiting symptoms or are diagnosed. At a minimum, the individual must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and have had no diarrhea or vomiting in the previous 24 hours. Other diseases have specific criteria for when a student or staff member can return to school; see IDPH resource for more information on other diseases.
- The final alterations to our 2020-2021 Learning Plan include updating the “Creation of and updating of document” section (pp. 26-27) and the “Resources” section (p. 29).
The updated 2020-2021 Learning Plan can be found by visiting https://5il.co/idyq while a condensed version containing major overarching information can be found by visiting https://5il.co/idyr. If you have already read any of the previous versions, we ask that you read and review the updated sections as noted earlier. If you have not read our plan yet, we encourage you to do so.
After reading and reviewing our updated plan, if you have any questions about our plan, you are encouraged to start by contacting the appropriate personnel as described below:
Questions related to schools
Hinckley-Big Rock Elementary School - Julie Melnyk - jmelnyk@hbr429.org or (815) 286-3400
Hinckley-Big Rock Middle School - Jeff Strouss - jstrouss@hbr429.org or (630) 556-4190
Hinckley-Big Rock High School - Jay Brickman - jbrickman@hbr429.org or (815) 286-7501
Questions related to student services district-wide
Student Services Department - Jessica Sonntag - jsonntag@hbr429.org or (815) 286-7578
Questions related to our overall plan and requirements as set forth by the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health
Superintendent - Travis McGuire - tmcguire@hbr429.org or (815) 286-7578
#TogetherWeGotThis
Sincerely,
Dr. Travis L. McGuire
HBR CUSD #429