Staff, students, and parents of our district are absolutely not prepared to enter the 2022 school year in-person in the midst of the largest Covid-19 surge that not only Illinois, but the entire nation, has faced so far. The sheer scale of the current spike of Omicron and Delta variant cases absolutely dwarfs the previous surges of Autumn 2020 and 2021. Based on data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, schools are the exposure location for nearly half of all Covid cases in the state - cases that are filling our hospitals to the brim. Schools throughout our state and country have also faced massive staffing shortages and student shortages during the last week of reopening that have prevented students from learning and staff from teaching. In response, many school districts have a virtual or semi-virtual plan in place for one to two weeks so that kids and teachers can temporarily learn in a safer environment while waiting for the worst of this current Covid surge to pass.

We are imploring you to open your eyes in this time of utmost urgency and uncertainty, so that we can put a pause on in-person learning at our schools for at least the next two weeks until conditions allow staff and students to return to school safely and without fear of catching and spreading this deadly disease. Instead of forcing children, who are at an increased risk of hospitalization with the newest variants and of whom fewer are vaccinated, to return to a stressful, unsafe, and incomplete learning environment amidst inevitable staffing shortages, we need to stand together to provide for an alternative and temporary virtual or hybrid plan for our schools. We can't let sick students fall behind, or let staffing shortages prevent children from learning. We have to act now.