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River Bend Families,

With the recent downgrade in Covid Region 1, I wanted to provide an update. Schools are exempt from the additional restrictions. However, we will continue to work very diligently, to keep our spaces clean, continue wearing our masks, socially distance, and wash hands frequently.

Overall, River Bend Schools have had a great first quarter. Our PK-5 buildings have had zero positive student cases. River Bend Middle School has only had 3 positive cases. Fulton High School has averaged about 2 positive student cases per week. We have also only had 2 positive staff cases. On a daily basis we average about 8-12 student quarantines due to family exposure, positive family cases, or symptoms. Staff have needed to quarantine at times as well. Thank you all for informing us as early as possible when your children have symptoms or you have a positive case in your household. Please keep up the great work! As I monitor the 61252 and 61230 zip codes and compare the data to the rest of Whiteside County, we have seen a smaller number of increasing COVID cases compared to the surrounding communities. I am grateful that Fulton and Albany areas remain vigilant with COVID precautions.

Updates:

1. Return to Five Days a week - Starting Monday, November 23rd, all our buildings will bring back students on Mondays. Because we continue to serve about 90 families in the remote setting, our school day will continue to end around 1:00 PM. A decision to extend the school day is being evaluated and considered.
2. All students will be on-site by Wednesday, November 4th - We appreciate your patience as we have scaled to full capacity. Having all students on-site and maintaining COVID precautions is challenging, but doable. The teachers and support staff have worked diligently to manage the many new practices that follow adding students safely. We are excited to see the students each day. Today a bus was added to the Albany routes. Specific students on buses 10 and 2 will be shifted to newly added bus 4. Students/families needing to change buses will be notified by mid-week.
3. Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, November 2nd - Each of the schools have sent out emails or made phone calls to schedule a conference. Conferences will take place virtually, by phone, or in-person. A virtual conference is preferred to maintain COVID precautions. Please contact your child’s teacher if a conference has not been scheduled and you would like to meet with the teacher.
4. Flu Shots being offered at FHS and RBMS- Both schools have sent out information that provides details about a $20 flat fee flu shot to be given by CGH staff on-site at each school. Flu shots will be given on October 29th and 30th in the morning.
5. Athletic Activities- We are closely monitoring what athletic activities the Governor, IHSA, and IESA will allow. As soon as a determination is made River Bend will be ready to offer athletic activities that meet the COVID safety standards.

Gratefully- Darryl Hogue

Dear River Bend Families,

I am attaching a letter that provides an update on the District's plans to expand on-site learning.  As we continue to expand on-site learning please keep in mind the delicate balance we must manage as our two zip codes continue to have higher than average positivity rates and number of cases in Whiteside County. 

61252 and 61230 positivity rate=10.4% (number of people tested/number of positive cases)

Percent of Cases in Whiteside County by Communities

Sterling-37%

Fulton/Albany-22%

Rock Falls-18%

Morrison-10%

Prophetstown/Lyndon/Tampico-5%

Erie-2%

Thank you for the continued support as we look to bring back more students.

Darryl Hogue

Sept. 20 Return to Learn Update: Expanding On-Site Learning

River Bend Families,

As you were notified last week by Dr. Hogue, beginning on Monday, September 14th and subsequent Mondays in September, students will be live remotely with teachers for the day.  This learning is for all Anchor/Boat learners as well as remote learners.  Each grade level may have a different schedule but the schedule is what we believe is the best for students at that grade.

For the PK-8 level, we also are trying to do our best to keep the Monday schedules as close to what a daily schedule would look like if the district has to go fully remote.  We believe that this consistency will help everyone involved.  FHS has to run a different schedule to meet their needs at this time.

The administration would once again like to thank you for your patience as we continue to charter new waters.  We are working to get the students back to in person learning everyday but that also requires us to continue to change schedules.  We are very thankful for the support from our families and students.

River Bend Learning Expectations

The link above are the remote learning expectations for River Bend students. It is vital for parents to understand the expectations for all students during remote learning as they will be held accountable to these standards.

Below are links to information for each building’s schedule and information for Mondays.   

FHS Data

FHS Updated Schedule/Calendar

RBMS Schedule Information

RBMS Calendar

FBP/FES Information

Thanks!

Mr. Robert Gosch

Mr. Patrick Henrekin

Mrs. Kathleen Schipper

Mr. Jeffrey Hoese

Whiteside County Health Department COVID Release

River Bend Families and Staff,                  

The communities and families in our school district have seen significant damage from  Monday's storm.  For many of us, getting by day to day has not been easy.  Please know you are in our thoughts and prayers.  

The middle and elementary school both sustained damage to the roof, cooling systems, and windows in some manner.  Both schools also have had to deal with water damage inside the buildings.  At this point, we believe we can still start with our blended and remote plans on August 17th.  However, without power, we do not know the damage to our technology systems and internet.  We will assess the technology and internet damages as soon as we get power restored.  

I wanted to provide an option if we have to delay the start of school due to technology issues.  We would start with teachers on Wednesday, August 19th and use the rest of the week as a teacher institute and training days.  We would push back all our current start plans until Monday, August 24th and start with our orientation day. Anchor days would begin on Tuesday, August 25th and Boat days would start on Wednesday, August 26th.   

As I stated earlier, we hope to start on time, but cannot predict what our technology connection issues will be without power.  I hope this helps in providing a backup plan if it becomes necessary.  If we have to push back the start of school to August 24th, you will be notified as soon as the decision is made.  

We are excited about school starting and like each of you are happy that the storm did not do more damage and we are all safe.  Our Steamer Strong spirit will help us get through this together.

Looking forward to getting underway,

Darryl Hogue

RIver Bend Return to Learn Details

Dear River Bend Families,                  

We greatly appreciate the response rates to the survey sent last week.  To keep families updated, I wanted to send a follow-up note.  Overall, about 88% of the families said they would be sending their children back.  We are attempting to do our best to support all families.  12% still have concerns and we respect those concerns as well.  If you follow national trends, when we opened up our states COVID cases continued to increase.  Locally, we have seen an increase of cases in Whiteside County and especially within our school district boundaries.  Communities within our school district currently have 74 of the 302 positive cases in Whiteside County.  This represents 25% of the cases in Whiteside County, our school district boundaries represent about 10% of Whiteside County.  The school district has had two staff members exposed to positive cases and needed to quarantine for 10 to 24 days per Whiteside County protocols.  

Even though 88% of families stated they prefer their child(ren) to return to onsite learning, it is important to note that our community has seen a large increase in the number positive COVID cases. The new cases are increasing with our high school aged persons. If cases continue to rise, full remote learning may be necessary at all grade levels to ensure student, staff, and community safety.  We know that families and students want to return to school but our administrative team and Board of Education believe we need to address this local outbreak proactively.  At the board meeting last night the administrative team recommended modifications to the current return to learn plan. The new updated plan will include extension of Anchor/Boat days for PK-8 until further notice. Fulton High school will start the year remotely with OPTIONAL building times for students to receive 1:1 instructional support. More details of that instructional support will be developed by the HS staff and sent to HS students and parents. 

Updated building plans will be shared as soon as they are available.  I have included some information that will provide brief answers to the questions from the surveys.   

1. We will provide academic learning opportunities for both on-site and remote learning. 

2. Families will have the opportunity to select on-site or remote options through the following link https://forms.gle/qNLLJdZNNf3kUWxg6  If family medical circumstances change the district will address those individual family needs.  

3. With the increase in COVID cases in our region, a full remote learning format MAY need to be adopted. ISBE and/or the governor may scale the State of Illinois back into phase 2 or 3 which would mean remote learning for all.  

4. When positive COVID cases decrease we hope to move to an on-site model for all students.    

5. Lunch will be provided for both on-site and remote learning.  Details for remote learning students to pick up lunch will be provided as we get closer to school beginning.

6. Updates for IHSA athletics will be provided by the athletic director. IHSA allowed activities will proceed in small groups during the remote learning time period.  

7. Masks: As a reminder, the school district will provide 1 mask to each student. I am sure many families will purchase masks for their own children. As a reminder, masks need to be snug and cover both the nose and mouth. The board approved a face covering policy at last night’s meeting.  If not wearing a mask is your family's choice, arrangements will need to be made for remote learning. 

River Bend will continue to face challenges and will adjust plans accordingly as we do our best to serve our wonderful communities. The following provides some insight into the many concerns facing our decisions. 

As you know, a Return to Learn team has worked throughout the summer to figure out the best ways to educate our students which included the development of a Full Remote E-Learning Model and a full return. We developed our Hybrid A/B Model based on the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Part 3 Guidance that was released on June 23, 2020. All school districts in Illinois are required to adhere to the guidelines set forth by ISBE and IDHP. In response to the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation, the state has made changes to the guidance since its release in June. Since that time, more guidance has been shared and as a result, the District has had to adjust our plan for the upcoming school year.

To operate in-person instruction, the District must: limit the number of people in one space; ensure compliance with social distancing requirements to the greatest extent possible; require symptom screenings and temperature checks or self-certification on a daily basis; ensure appropriate hygienic practices; and require the use of appropriate personal protective equipment by students, staff, and visitors. As we have continued to review operations, we identified a number of areas where the impact from complying with these requirements with fidelity will require changes that will be challenging. 

Considerations include:

Cohorting of Students (PK-8 students are in cohort groups) - One strategy for minimizing transmission of the coronavirus is to maintain students in fixed cohorts. Our educational programs at all levels benefit from students moving throughout the day and interacting with different groups.

Social Distancing - When we examined the spaces within our buildings, we determined that we are able to implement the six-foot social distancing requirement throughout the school day with modifications to our attendance patterns or class structure. Guidance on social distancing continues to lack clarity and specificity from both ISBE and IDPH.

Response to Symptoms - Schools must send home or deny entry of a student or staff member if ANY of the ten COVID-19 symptoms are present: Fever (100.4'F/38'C or higher), fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, shortness of breath, cough, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, new loss of sense of taste or smell, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain. If a child is sent home during the day because they have exhibited any of these symptoms, the child’s parent will be required to: 1) quarantine the student for a 10-day minimum period; or 2) provide a doctor’s note for an alternative diagnosis (e.g., strep throat). Because COVID-19 symptoms are common, we anticipate that large numbers of students will be excluded from in-person learning. We also recognize the burden this requirement will place on parents to address unpredicted changes in student attendance.

Quarantining - Both students and staff who are in close contact with a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case are required to stay home for 14 days after their last exposure to the case.   Whiteside County Health Department will guide the families and district with quarantining protocol. When coupled with the lack of ability to cohort students, we realize that these quarantine requirements arising from in-school exposures will result in the exclusion of large numbers of students. These mandatory quarantining requirements will cause widespread disruption to the education of our students and may require a move to remote learning at all grade levels.  

Workforce Issues - The impact of the mandatory quarantining guidelines on the school environment is compounded exponentially due to the shortage of teacher substitutes that all school districts in Illinois and River Bend CUSD 2. During a non-COVID-19 environment, we struggled to staff our building with qualified substitute teachers. Only one-third of our substitute teachers have committed to returning this coming school year. If staff is required to quarantine due to actual or potential exposure to COVID-19, whether in school or outside of school, our schools will be left with no classroom coverage with qualified substitutes.

The River Bend administration, staff, and Board of Education greatly appreciate the support of our community.  More than anything we want to do what is best and the safest for all involved.  Please know that your continued support truly makes a difference.  We will closely monitor state directives and provide updates.  

Gratefully,

Darryl Hogue, Superintendent

Robert Gosch, FHS Principal

Patrick Henrekin, FHS Asst. Principal

Kathleen Schipper, RBMS Principal

Jeffrey Hoese, FES Principal

Face Covering Policy