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Glenbrook District 225 switching to remote learning amid COVID-19 surge
Glenbrook High School District 225 sent an announcement to parents Wednesday saying it is transitioning to an "Adaptive Pause" on in-person classes because of a staffing shortage.
GLENVIEW, Ill. - Glenbrook High School District 225 sent an announcement to parents Wednesday saying it is transitioning to an "Adaptive Pause" on in-person classes because of a staffing shortage.
This will cancel in-person classes for at least the rest of the week.
"We’re right after the holidays, so we expected a surge to be seen at this point," said Dr. Shikha Jain with UI Health.
Jain said she is not surprised to see an uptick in COVID cases within District 225, especially with the highly-contagious Omicron variant and it being right after the holidays.
Graphical metrics released by the District say it all: With relatively few cases between August and Dec. 31, there is a sharp spike this past week, with the district reporting 297 new cases.
"I think it’s probably a smart move to take this pause if they have that many positive cases in their school," Jain said.
In a letter sent out to families, the Superintendent wrote, "Glenbrook High School District 225 will be making a transition to a full Adaptive Pause beginning January 6, 2022…we are simply not able to provide adequate classroom and school supervision to maintain reasonable operations. While we were firmly committed to in-person instruction, we were simply unable to staff it."
"I can imagine as we continue to see numbers go up—not only schools, but businesses, hospitals—a lot of places are going to have to be modifying or pausing what they are doing as well," said Jain.
Dr. Jain says the good news is that among the vaccinated younger population, the Omicron variant is typically leading to very mild symptoms, although doctors across the country have seen an uptick in unvaccinated kids being hospitalized.
While classes are canceled for the remainder of this week, as of right now, next week’s final exams are still scheduled to take place in-person, and classes are anticipated to resume for the start of the second semester the week of Jan. 18.