Dear District 99 Students and Families:
The District 99 Board of Education will hold a special meeting this Saturday, January 16 at 9 a.m. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the metrics District 99 uses to determine when students may attend school in person and follow the 2021 hybrid schedule. Currently, in addition to other factors, the combined 14-day positivity rate in our community must be 9% or below; the recommendation is to increase the rate to 10% or below. The Board of Education members will vote on whether or not to raise the community transmission threshold to 10%, which is the top of the range set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Metrics for cohorts to meet in person will remain at 12%.)
District 99 reviewed its performance of having students attend school in person last week, when the positivity rates were higher than 9%. We experienced no outbreaks at school, we had adequate staff, and we were able to follow all the safety protocols and illness tracking procedures. Moving forward we are also adding additional contact tracers, with the availability to add more if needed, and have streamlined our protocols as well. As a result, we are confident that we can run school safely in person when raising the positivity rate threshold from 9% to 10%.
If the Board approves the recommendation, we will confirm by 3:30 p.m. on Monday, January 18 the schedule for January 19-22. The 14-day positivity rate as of 3 p.m. on Monday, January 18--and every Monday moving forward--must be 10% or lower in order for us to return to in-person learning. Please check your email or the www.csd99.org/2020-21 website for updates. The 14-day positivity rate will continue to be posted to this dashboard.
At the meeting, District 99 will also share an update about creating an internal testing program. When in place, the district will consider monitoring internal metrics instead of community metrics to determine safe levels to return to school. In addition, District 99 is working closely with its elementary partner districts, the Village of Downers Grove and DuPage County on building a vaccination program for those community members in “Group 1B” (which includes school staff) to receive a vaccination.
The meeting on Saturday will be virtual and streamed live at www.youtube.com/csd99media. Please visit this page for information on how to comment for the meeting’s public record; visit this page for other ways to contact the Board.
Thank you,
District 99