It would appear that Geneva High School administrators and the school board have determined that the “adaptive pause” in in-person instruction at the school is no longer necessary.
Late Friday, District 304 Superintendent Kent Mutchler announced that “after reviewing the high school data since our return to learning five days per week on April 5, and examining, evaluating, and discussing potential changes to our learning model, the school district has determined that we will continue with our five days per week model on Monday, April 19.”
The resumption comes after a spike in COVID-related student quarantines resulting from Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) guidelines that indicate that quarantine is necessary for individuals who have been “exposed to a confirmed case defined as having been within 6 feet of the confirmed case for a cumulative time period of 15 minutes over 24 hours and not fully vaccinated.” While both CDC and IDPH guidelines have recently been updated to require only 3 feet of separation rather than six, this adjustment has apparently not been applied to contact tracing recommendations.
Since the pause was announced, it has been determined that a total of 9 students had contracted COVID, 4 of which had attended class at GHS. These 4 represent .002% of the student body at GHS, far lower than the prevalence in the general public.
Mutchler expressed optimism that additional “pauses” will not be necessary.
“The school district is hopeful that the two-day adaptive pause will reduce the number of quarantines in the near future because students were not in close contact with one another on Thursday and Friday of this week. The district is also optimistic that the number of positive Covid cases will diminish now that we are further from spring break.”
