The district has been in constant contact with the DeKalb County Health Department, the Illinois Department of Public Health, as well as the Center for Disease Control. In addition, this Friday afternoon, all public schools in DeKalb County will be meeting at the DeKalb County Health Department for a more in depth discussion about procedures and protocols as well.
Yesterday, the Illinois State Board of Education distributed a survey regarding all district's ability to provide learning at home in the event of wide-spread accounts of the virus. GK currently has this ability, and has a plan in place that is approved by the board.
While we are continuously working with health experts to minimize the possibility of transmittal of the virus in the district through proper cleaning protocols with CDC approved cleaning agents, we are aware that at some time, this could become a reality for the district. If it does, we will treat each case independently, with input from the DeKalb County Health Department, who is our direct contact for this matter. This could include, but is not limited to:
a. Individual students asked to learn from home.
b. Specific groups of students asked to learn from home.
c. District buildings asked to learn from home.
d. The full district population asked to learn from home.
Tomorrow, we will be having an Administrative Team meeting, and a major discussion topic will be making sure that our staff is ready to educate students through E-Learning for extended periods of time if need be.
With information and numbers changing on a daily basis, this is a very fluid plan that can change at any time. As of the moment I am typing this message, there are no cases in DeKalb County, but I did notice that there is a case in McHenry reported today. We will continue to monitor the situation, continue to communicate with the DeKalb County Health Department, and update the community if and/or when action needs to be taken.
I hope this helps you better understand where the district is at with this concern. If you have more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me back through email or give me a call at 815-784-6222.
Brent O'Daniell
Superintendent