Wilmington 209-U total COVID positive cases stands at 17

Wilmington School District 209-U Superintendent Dr. Matt Swick sent the following communication to families on Tuesday, Nov. 17:

ATTENTIONS PARENTS & STUDENTS -
It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving Break is already nearly upon us! We have experienced a memorable and somewhat challenging 1st half of the 2020-2021 school year, but so very grateful for the opportunity that we've had to connect daily with our students both in-person and online.
 
The following most current and updated COVID-related information was shared with the faculty and staff of the Wilmington School District towards the end of this past week. As of this past Thursday (November 12th), the current and active positive staff and student cases in each building were as follows:
 
Bruning - 0 Students and 1 Staff
Stevens - 3 In-person Students and 0 Staff
WMS - 1 Remote Student and 1 Staff
WHS - 9 In-person Students, 1 Remote Student, and 1 Staff
Total Positive Cases (Staff and Students) = 15 in-person students/staff and 2 remote students.
 
Nine out of the seventeen students and staff were eligible to return to school yesterday, Monday, November 16th. Although 9 of the active cases were moved to inactive status this week, we also were recently notified of a limited number of newly diagnosed cases. Please know that active COVID case numbers will ebb and flow from one day to the next and one week to another.  However, I wanted to share this most recent breakdown that was recently provided to staff.
 
We are excited and very pleased to have been successful in our return to in-person teaching & learning. The efforts of students, staff, and parents in striving to keep one another safe & well have been much appreciated!  Although we will continue closely monitoring our local data and regional conditions on a daily basis, while also communicating with the Will County Health Department on a regular basis, we are confident at this time in our ability to continue moving forward with in-person teaching & learning in between Thanksgiving and Christmas break.
 
As long as our current schedule is still in place throughout the month of December, we wanted to let everyone know that we will plan to schedule an early dismissal for students on the following Wednesdays... December  2, 9 and 16. On each of these Wednesdays, we will plan to release students beginning at noon @ Bruning; 12:15 @ WHS; and 12:20 @ Stevens Intermediate & WMS. No lunch will be served on those three dates. Similar to the schedule adjustment from a few weeks ago, students will be expected to complete approximately one hour of remote learning activities also on each of these early release days. We believe that these early dismissals will be of great help to both staff and students, offering some important rest and an opportunity for staff to effectively work with students who may have missed some school due to close contacts, etc.
 
Thanks again for your continued flexibility and understanding as we all work together to tackle the 2020-2021 school year!