The Barrington Hills Observer

District 220 issued the following release this afternoon:

“At the Dec. 15 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Harris shared that Barrington 220 families will have the choice to participate in a Hybrid mode or Distance Learning beginning Tuesday, January 19. The decision was made after receiving new information from public health officials which indicates that it is safe for students to return to a Hybrid mode if school districts continue to implement the following five CDC mitigation strategies with fidelity: 

• Consistent and correct use of masks
• Social distancing to the largest extent possible
• Hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette
• Cleaning and disinfection
• Contact tracing in collaboration with local health department

The date of Tuesday, January 19 was chosen for the following reasons: to allow for mitigation time recommended after winter break due to travel and family gatherings, as well as time for operational transitions related to transportation, food service, and staffing.

Over the past several weeks school principals and district leaders have been working to improve the Hybrid plans at each level. Please read the information below to learn more about each plan.

Elementary Hybrid 2.0

In the elementary Hybrid 2.0 plan students would attend school in-person five days a week, for 2.5 hours each day. Those 2.5 hours would focus on literacy, math and social emotional learning. Students would still be divided into two groups, “Group A” and Group B”. Group A would attend in-person instruction in the mornings and Group B would attend in-person instruction in the afternoons. You can view the schedule in the image below. 

Elementary families who wish to continue with Distance Learning will be placed in full remote classrooms and students will continue following their current learning schedule, which includes synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

All elementary families will be sent a questionnaire tonight asking them to select if their student will participate in Hybrid 2.0 or Distance Learning for the spring semester. In addition, they will be asked to indicate whether or not their student will be using district provided transportation. Please complete this questionnaire by 11:59 pm on Sunday, December 20.

In addition, all elementary principals will be holding virtual meetings this evening to explain more details about the Hybrid and Distance Learning options. If you did not receive information about this meeting, please contact your principal.

Middle and High School Hybrid 2.0

In the middle and high school Hybrid 2.0 plans students would remain in two groups, “Group A” and “Group B”. However, it would include Wednesdays as an additional in-person instruction day. For example, one week Group A would be in person all day Monday-Wednesday, while Group B would be in person all day Thursday-Friday. The following week Group A would be in person Monday-Tuesday and Group B would be in person Wednesday-Friday. Students who choose to continue Distance Learning would continue to follow the schedule they are currently following, as teachers will be providing concurrent (simultaneous) instruction to students who are remote and in person.

*All middle and high school families will receive a communication this week which will show whether they selected Hybrid or Distance Learning back in October. Families who wish to change their selection for January will have to make the change in Infinite Campus. The communication will explain how to do this. A second communication will be sent out after winter break regarding transportation for middle and high school students.

Timeline

• Dec. 16: Elementary Principals hold virtual parent meetings to explain Hybrid 2.0 plans.
• Dec. 16: District sends out Elementary parent questionnaire on Hybrid 2.0 model choice.
• Dec. 16: Middle schools and high school send out communication information *noted above. 
• Dec. 20: Deadline for elementary families to make selection and middle and high school families to change selection.
• Jan. 6-13: Principals finalize assignment changes and operational transitions.
• Jan. 13: Elementary Hybrid 2.0 teacher assignments announced.
• Jan. 15: No school for all students, as staff prepares for transition from Distance Learning to Hybrid 2.0.
• Jan. 19: Hybrid 2.0 begins for all Pre-K–12 students.”

220 released a video which can be seen here.