'A really good start to the school year': Genoa-Kingston, Sycamore districts welcome students back

As head of the largest district in DeKalb County to return to some level of in-person schooling, Genoa-Kingston Superintendent Brent O'Daniell said he was expecting check-in procedures to take a while on Monday's first day of school.

And while they did go a little long, O'Daniell called it a success. Genoa-Kingston District 424 and Sycamore District 427 both started on Monday.

"In all honesty, we were worried about getting kids into the buildings," O'Daniell said. "We were afraid kids would be lined up for an hour as we got them checked in and that just did not happen. School starts at 7:50 a.m. at the high school and by 8:02 everyone was in the building."

O'Daniell said the entry process is that each student lines up single file, presents the self-administered COVID-19 symptom-check form their parents or guardians filled out at home, then walks through a thermal imager to double check their health.

"We had one student beep, indicating they could have a fever," O'Daniell said. "They went to the nurse and sat down for 5 minutes, relaxed, we took it orally and they were fine. We sent them on to class."

For Sycamore, students began their full remote school day on Monday. Superintendent Steve Wilder said he had only attendance data for the high school, and that 96% of students had logged on by lunchtime.

"That's actually really good," Wilder said. "Maybe you can call me cynical but I would have expected the (number of absent students) to be higher. ... If you would have asked me what I was hoping for, that number was better than I would have expected."

Bandwidth problems had been a concern addressed at school board meetings about going fully remote, but Wilder said none of that popped up.

He said the technology issues were mostly along the line of forgotten passwords.

"It's not to say today was without challenges," Wilder said. "Some big ones were technology-related. But mostly resetting passwords and getting students directed to the right websites. By and large they were easy to resolve. ... It was not without its bumps but it was a really good start to the school year."

Wilder also said the district utilized its buses and monitors to distribute meals to students. He said 188 students were delivered meals, which will last three days. Deliveries will be every Monday and Thursday, with the Thursday delivery providing meals for that day, Friday and Monday breakfast.

Wilder also said the extra week of prep time paid off for the teachers, helping things go smooth across the district. The district was originally supposed to start Aug. 24 but got delayed a week.

G-K was doing a hybrid schedule, with about half the students attending Monday. O'Daniell said technological issues did come into play but nothing unexpected or that which could not be handled.

"It was not as bad as it could have been," O'Daniell said. "The tech department has done a nice job getting prepared. Obviously we had our hands full with all kinds of things here and there. But there was nothing systemic which was good. Sometimes technology can be your best friend and sometimes it can be your worst enemy. We were lucky we had more friends than enemies in tech and that was a good thing."