COVID-19 Update – June 23, 2020

CategoriesCOVID-19 / News

June 23, 2020

Dear Hollis Families,

Hopefully, this letter finds you and your family doing well and enjoying the start of summer. As we begin to approach July, we inevitably begin to think about going back to school. This year, plans for returning to school are accompanied by a lot of unknowns.

As of today, it is our desire to return to in-person instruction with enhanced safety, cleaning, and social distancing practices, on our anticipated start date of August 13. However, we are aware that this may not be possible. Due to the ever-changing threat of COVID-19, we want to be prepared on how to best educate the students at Hollis Grade School. Many of you have probably heard about three different options being considered as schools begin to plan for reopening.

  • Traditional school with increased safety measures (regular full-day instruction with social distancing, increased cleaning and disinfecting, increased hand washing, etc).
  • Remote learning (full remote learning with no in-person instruction)
  • Hybrid or blended (combination of remote learning and traditional instruction)

As we explore different scenarios, please know that we are focusing on the health and safety of our students and staff. Our main goal is to keep everyone safe while not creating any additional challenges. We are aware that a potential return to remote learning poses its own set of unique obstacles during already challenging times. There will likely be some hurdles we will all face in August, but it is our hope to minimize these as much as possible.

We are anticipating official reopening guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education as well as the Illinois Department of Public Health to be released soon. Hollis is awaiting that guidance before making any official plans on how to best reopen our doors in August. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Jones or Mrs. Schoedel at (309) 697 – 1325 or via email. We miss all of our Hollis Hawks and are looking forward to seeing you again soon!