Mandatory Coronavirus Testing Considered At New Trier High School

NEW TRIER TOWNSHIP, IL — As New Trier High School students return from Thanksgiving break, the school board is considering making a negative coronavirus test result mandatory for students or staff who want to come on campus.

Since the program began on Nov. 16, more than 3,700 students and staff have been screened using a rapid saliva test from Safeguard Screening, according to the district's website. The Brookfield-based company first began providing tests to LaGrange School District 102, where its immunologist founder, Ed Campbell, serves on the board.

At the Nov. 24 special meeting, a majority of the New Trier school board voiced support for making the testing program mandatory. It is currently only required for participation in extracurricular activities.

In the first week of the program, less than 72 percent of staff and over 88 percent of students participated in the voluntary testing program. Seven percent of families requested the test kit but did not return samples, according to administrators.

"We need to test everyone. I think it's unrealistic to expect through messaging and encouragement to get 100 percent," board member Greg Robitaille said. "If you were giving out free money there would be people who didn't show up for the free money, so nobody does anything at 100 percent. I think we've got to require it as a condition of being in the building."

One of New Trier's feeder districts, Glencoe School District 35, has already announced plans to require a negative COVID-19 test result before students are allowed back on campus in January — although District 35 has shifted students to fully remote learning through winter break.

Board Vice President Marc Glucksman said testing is already mandatory at Rosalind Franklin University, where he is the professor and discipline chair of biochemistry and molecular biology. He said even someone with a rare medical condition that makes it difficult to generate saliva would probably be able to produce a sample.

There were 11 active infections among students and two among staff, as of Monday, with another 34 students and five staff members quarantined due to close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 cases. No data is available from the district regarding the total number of students and staff to test positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

On Tuesday, specimens from 206 staff members and 623 students were screened for COVID-19, with two new positive cases discovered among students.

Superintendent Paul Sally said administrators were committed to operating with as many students on campus as can be accommodated safely.

"We have identified many asymptomatic positive students. That is a good benefit for the school, for the community and for the families as well. We also recognize that it is not an impenetrable barrier — that we will continue to have our PPE and infection control procedures," Sally said.

"What we have learned is that we can mitigate. We have learned through our experience that even with substantial COVID numbers in our area we've been able to run school safely. This is a really good thing. We're very happy that we've had that experience as swell as some other schools. This doesn't necessarily contradict what my recommendation is," he told board members.

In October, New Trier shifted to remote learning for two weeks before returning to hybrid learning on Nov. 10.

In the district's current "25 percent hybrid" instructional model, there are about one to five students in most classes, the superintendent explained, with some having up to 10 students in a classroom depending on last names and educational accommodations.

Under Sally's recommendation, the district would scale up to half of students who opted in to on-campus instruction following winter break and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in an effort to handle post-holiday spikes in new infections.

Based on current enrollment, that would mean capacity of between 38 and 46 percent at the Northfield campus and 30 to 39 percent in Winnetka, with class sizes ranging from six to 12 students, according to the superintendent.

Sally also said new metrics that incorporate the results of the comprehensive saliva testing program will be used to make future adjustments in the number of students allowed on campus at one time.

Associate Superintendent Chris Johnson described the testing scheme, which is projected to cost the district up to $1.3 million, as an extra precaution rather than a replacement for existing COVID-19 mitigation measures.

"This is not permission to let your guard down after school. So this is not permission to not wear your masks, to gather in groups, to do things that public health officials advised against doing," Johnson said. "This is something we're doing to keep the rates down, to keep school open, as a supplementary measure. It's not permission to not follow the directives of public health officials."

UPDATE: Mandatory Coronavirus Testing Begins At New Trier High School

Speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, several members of a recently formed student group called Students for Safety urged board members not to allow more students on campus. Earlier that day, the group had hosted a livestreamed town hall panel discussion with medical professionals and faculty members as guests.

Group member Hannah Sussman said students spent time to put together the event during their break.

"If you won't listen to the science that's urging all schools and all businesses that are nonessential to try to go remote, if you won't listen to that and you won't listen to the teachers that are begging you not to reopen, then please listen to the students, the students that you are reopening for," Sussman said. "The students that are here are telling you it is not worth it. If you are opening for our sakes, please listen to our voices when we say that we can not open right now."

Another member of the group, Victoria Chan, read several statements that she said were provided by teachers, some of whom went unnamed.

"'This administration has managed in just six months to unravel over 100 years of collaboration and trust between administration, faculty and staff,'" said one anonymous teacher Chan quoted. "'It's somewhat between disappointing and disgusting and I've been considering finding a new place of employment where the leaders and community treat teachers with the dignity and respect they deserve.'

"Another anonymous teacher said, 'I'd like the community to know that I am teaching in person despite everything I know is right during this pandemic. Although I am in-person, I have a panic attack almost every morning that I go into school and I drive my morning commute in tears trying to calm down and tell myself we are safe.' Teachers should not be put in positions like this where they have to choose between their safety and their jobs," Chan said.

Social studies teacher Kerry Hall was among the several members of the New Trier Education Association — the faculty's local collective bargaining unit — who attended the meeting in matching red shirts. He urged board members not to rely on the testing program due to a lack of evidence about its effectiveness.

"I speak of the long New Trier tradition of collaboration and trust between administration and faculty. I've seen that relationship be wonderful for many, many years. Sadly, that trust is quickly eroding," Hall said. "We know our community will be less safe two weeks after Thanksgiving, so I urge you to pause and not rush back to 50 percent."

Rusty Magner, a New Trier parent, said life is inherently risky and risks need to be managed.

"Everywhere I go, people are out and about at stores, at restaurants. They're open, they're being safe, I think we can do the same thing here. I'd like this school to be open. New Trier is a leader, let's be open and set an example both locally and nationally," he added. "Because if not now, then when? And if not us, then who?"

Magner said he watched the student group's event and favored an open dialogue and exchange of ideas. He said he opposed attempts to ascribe political agendas to those who attended a rally organized by a group of parents calling for more students to be allowed in classrooms.

That group, Open New Trier, demonstrated at the Northfield campus on Nov. 14 calling for students to have the option of attending classes in person every day, with Erich "Mancow" Muller, a Wilmette resident and father of New Trier students, and former Chicago Public Schools CEO and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas as special guests.

"My God, look at this crowd. I mean, you go to the South Side, they're ugly. I don't think I've ever been to the South Side of Chicago. We are good looking people. Look at all these people, good looking people." Muller told several dozen attendees and a few local television crews. "Why are you all so far away? It's the COVID. It's the Wuhan red death. I'm gonna get you sick, OK."

Representatives of the group did not respond to a request for comment following the rally.

Prior to the emergence of the new coronavirus, one of the four organizers named on the Open New Trier website, Ted Dabrowski, had been a vocal advocate of increased remote learning.

"There are many reasons," he said in a 2013 article, "to support an increase in online learning to spark innovation and opportunity for children across the state."

Dabrowski, a former vice president at the conservative Illinois Policy Institute who is now president of the blog Wirepoints, served on the board of Virtual Learning Solutions in an attempt to establish an online charter school across 18 districts in the Fox River Valley. His efforts were stymied when Illinois lawmakers passed a three-year ban on virtual charter schools outside of Chicago.

At the time, Dabrowski blamed unions and some state legislators for blocking reforms. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he has advocated for school reopenings against the wishes of teachers unions.

The board is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The special meeting is set to include a closed-door discussion of personnel, litigation and collective bargaining matters.

"We've heard from all sides of this issue," Sally said at the Nov. 24 meeting. "All sides of this issue actually use many of the same talking points around 'follow the science' and 'be a leader' and the like."

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