PEORIA, Ill. — A donation to Peoria Public Schools will help middle and high school students return to the classroom sooner than expected.
The Gilmore Foundation, founded by former Caterpillar President Bob Gilmore, who passed away last month at the age of 100, is giving $200,000 to PPS to pay for rapid COVID-19 testing.
The foundation’s Executive Director, Laura Cullinan, told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show”, Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat provided a proposal to help fund rapid COVID tests to the district.
“This is going to help the kids get back into the schools in November, where it had looked like they wouldn’t return until January at the earliest,” Cullinan said.
The $200,000 from the Gilmore Foundation will be matched by Reditus Labs of Pekin, founded by Dr. Aaron Rossi, a Richwoods High School graduate.
Reditus Labs is providing the school district with rapid COVID-19 tests that give results in 4-6 hours on the day of testing.
“So, that will reduce the quarantine time significantly, so that they can get back to the classrooms, get back to school and get back to learning,” Kherat said.
Kherat told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show” that testing details will be discussed further at Monday’s School Board meeting.
“Students and staff who show no symptoms of COVID-19 will be tested randomly, and students and staff who show no symptoms will also be tested,” Kherat said.
At this point, Kherat said the plan is to return PPS students in grades 5-12 to the classroom following the hybrid plan set out at the beginning of the school year, with students attending class in-person every other day, as soon as possible.
Kindergarten and first grade students returned to the schools last week. Special Education students will return to the classroom this week and 2-4 grade students are set to go back to in-person instruction Oct. 26.
