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District 220 issues updates following Board of Education meeting

Posted in 220, Board of Education, His Master's Voice, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Video Recordings on November 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »

The following was issued by District 220 this afternoon:

“November 18, 2020

In his superintendent report at the Nov. 17 Board meeting, Dr. Harris and district leaders shared several updates regarding the 2020-21 school year. First, Dr. Harris reiterated that the district will continue following its established metrics. This means the district will remain in Distance Learning (Step 2) until the data shows it is safe to return to the Hybrid mode. Barrington 220 will continue sending out weekly updates on Monday afternoons to indicate when a return to Hybrid will be possible.  

Dr. Harris also shared that on Friday, November 20 Illinois will enter Tier 3 COVID-19 Resurgence Mitigations. Due to new restrictions that limit gatherings to 10 people, the next regularly scheduled Board meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1 will be held virtually. It will be live streamed on the Board’s YouTube channel. If you wish to make public comment it can be made in one of two ways:

  • Submit your comments via email by sending them to Recording Secretary Jeanine Stark at jstark@barrington220.org. Please use the subject line “Public Comment.” 
  • Between now and 4:00pm on Tuesday, Dec. 1 you can leave a voicemail at 847-842-3576. This will be played during the public comment portion of the Dec. 1 Board meeting.  

Tier 3 mitigation efforts also place additional restrictions on recreational activity. Upon receiving guidance from Governor Pritzker, the Illinois High School Association, and Illinois State Board of Education, Barrington High School will be pausing all winter sports practices starting on Friday, November 20. Scheduled practices for Wednesday, November 18 and Thursday, November 19 will take place as scheduled.”

Editorial note: After receiving criticism during public comment in their November 4th meeting (see “District 220 board, superintendent certainly got an earful last night”), it seams the 220 Board of Educations response last night was to turn off the public comment microphone. Click here to see how the speaker’s comments can barely be heard (if at all from our perspective).

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D220 will extend adaptive pause until Monday, Nov. 16

Posted in 220, Board of Education, District 220 referendum, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts, The New Normal, Video Recordings on November 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Released this afternoon from 220:

“At its Nov. 4 meeting, the Board of Education discussed several key issues regarding the future of the 20-21 school year and agreed to extend the adaptive pause of the Hybrid mode until Monday, Nov. 16. 

The Board has scheduled a special meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 11 for the purpose of having a closed session to discuss employment matters, collective negotiating matters and litigation matters. The district will provide further communication no later than Thursday, Nov. 12 about the Hybrid status moving forward. 

The 20-21 school year discussion also focused on key issues such as:

  • Exposure and liability: The Board and district leaders will be having more conversations next week to explore options of how Barrington 220 can implement a Hybrid plan moving forward, with consideration of exposure and liability as the virus spreads in the community.

  • Re-opening Metrics Adjustment: The Board may consider adjusting the metrics in the future in order to make in-person instruction feasible.

  • Academic Calendar Adjustment: The Board is not considering adjusting the 20-21 academic calendar at this time.

  • Budget Expectations: The Board will consider spending beyond the FY21 budget in order to safely allow students back into school.

To view the entire discussion, watch this video from 1:21:34 thru 3:58:54”

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November 4th 220 Board of Education meeting agenda posted

Posted in 220, Agendas, Board of Education, District 220 referendum, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts, The New Normal, Video Recordings, Video Streaming on November 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »

“The district is at a critical point when decisions must be made about how to move forward with the 20-21 school year, given the information available. This will be the focus of discussion at the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Click here to view the agenda for the meeting.

The Board meeting will begin at 7pm at BMS-Station Campus. Due to public health guidelines, capacity will be limited to 50 people in the room, however anyone who wishes to sign up for public comment may do so. If capacity is reached, you will be asked to wait in an overflow room and then be called in for public comment. Following district protocol, all visitors must wear masks and will be required to complete an on site COVID-19 symptom screening prior to entering the building.

As a reminder, you can view the live stream of all Board of Education meetings by visiting the Board’s YouTube channel.”

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Time to stop giving 220’s Harris passes

Posted in 220, Board of Education, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, The New Normal, Video Recordings on September 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Dr. Brian Harris

A week ago today hundreds of parents and students in Barrington Area Unit District 220 gathered at a rally in Citizens Park to ask the district to allow in-person schooling to resume.

Some spoke while others displayed signs such as, “Open our schools for in-person learning,” or “Face 2 Face learning is essential” (see “‘I am asking for a choice’: Barrington 220 parents, students rally for in-person learning” and “Hundreds turn out for Barrington rally calling for end to remote learning, restart of student sports”).

A day later on the heals of this assembly of taxpayers, the 220 Board of Education held their last scheduled meeting in September. Some attended to reiterate their concerns during public comment while others objected to the board’s decision to postpone refunding fees taxpayers paid in advance for items such as registration fees, etc (see “District 220 postpones to next year decision on refunding school fees”).

After the public comment, Dr. Brian Harris spoke at length on some new metrics that needed to to be studied and tracked before even considering returning students to classrooms. After he completed his presentation (summarized including a video recording here), he asked the board members for their comments, some of which included:

“Board Secretary Angela Wilcox cited information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on higher suicide rates among young people and the need for social-emotional learning. She joined other board members expressing frustration over what was described as a slow schedule for getting kids back into school buildings.

‘You should have had a plan long ago,’ board member Gavin Newman told Harris.”

There were many more questions and comments directed at Harris. In our opinion, though, the board was going out of there way to be politic with him given their, parents, students and sometimes teachers ever mounting frustration with his handling of the schools situation. But we don’t feel the need to politic with him, so given the mounting frustration most parties have now, we have a suggestion.

Until such time as 220 classrooms reopen to at least hybrid leaning combining classroom and in-person learning, the Board of Education should schedule weekly public meetings with Harris providing timely updates on all progress toward that end. If they need to be Zoom meetings, so be it, but they must happen, because the next scheduled board meeting isn’t until October 6th, and no stakeholder should have to wait that long to discover what new information Harris has then.

If anyone thinks this suggestion is unreasonable, then perhaps they should ask themselves why St. Anne Parish School opened their doors to students late last month as did Saint Viator High School. It’s not divine intervention that opened those schools, just qualified non-union teachers, staff and management (something 220 seems to be lacking).

Finally, a reader wrote, “Maybe the school superintendent should be worried more about the students and their isolated unsafe lock-down than the pampered union teachers, ‘afraid for the unsafe work environment.’” We agree.

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220 Superintendent Harris shares metrics for return to in-person learning

Posted in 220, Board of Education, Politics, Property Taxes, Saint Anne Parish School, School Districts, The New Normal, Video Recordings on September 17, 2020| 1 Comment »

Following is an email message sent yesterday afternoon from District 220:

“At the Sept. 15 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Harris shared a presentation on the metrics which will be used to determine when large groups of students can return to in-person learning. Based on recommendations from a district committee which consulted with medical and public health professionals, Barrington 220 will use five metrics. Each metric will help determine which of the above four steps the district is currently in. The five metrics include the following:

In order to determine the district’s current step, all metrics must be met for a minimum of 10 days, following the trends over that period of time.

  • Example 1: All metrics are in Step 3 for 10 days: the district is in Step 3
  • Example 2: Most metrics are in Step 3 for 10 days, except for one metric in Step 2: the district is in Step 2

The metrics status will be updated every week on Monday afternoon. You will be able to view the updated metrics by visiting this dedicated webpage. Keep in mind, all families will receive notice well in advance of any shift in steps.

Please watch the video seen here as Dr. Harris explain the metrics in depth at the Board meeting.

Timeline:

  • Next two weeks: Finalize Hybrid plan for each level.
  • Oct. 6 Board meeting: share district’s metric status and Hybrid plans
  • Oct. 7-Oct. 20: Conduct family survey (Distance Learning or Hybrid)
  • Resolve operational and staffing issues
  • Oct. 20 Board meeting: verify metrics
  • Oct. 26: “Target” Hybrid start date for all levels

*Please note, this timeline may be accelerated if possible.”

Editorial note: It would be wise to have the teacher’s union sign off on this timeline before any student or parent expectations are mismanaged (again).

 

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More bad news for 220’s start of the school year next week?

Posted in 220, Board of Education, Property Taxes, School Districts, Video Recordings on August 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

District 220 Superintendent Brian Harris

Last night, District 220 Superintendent Brian Harris shared the following with the Board of Education:

“As of this morning, we had 260 staff members request, and are pursuing, some HR accommodations. That’s 218 of our top 760 teachers.”

Apparently, even though there will be no students in 220 schools next week, quite a few teachers would prefer to be remotely teaching rather than being on school grounds. It’s worth noting that half of the “accommodations” being sought are medical related.

To listen to Harris’ announcement, click here.

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Is District 220 practicing censorship? You be the judge.

Posted in 220, Board of Education, Deception, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Public Safety, School Districts, The New Normal, Video Recordings, Video Streaming on August 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

In just a few days, we have witnessed some very troubling communications decisions made by the District 220 Board of Education and their Superintendent. Some call it censorship, but it’s up to readers to decide that after considering some facts.

Tuesday night, upwards of 1,500 people tuned in to a live stream YouTube broadcast of a special meeting of the District 220 Board that began at 6:30 PM and lasted nearly three hours. For the first half hour of the meeting, a few participants checked off under on-line comments whether they liked or disliked what was being discussed (as seen in the graphic below).

Sometime after 7:00 the ratings were deleted and viewers could no longer register their opinion.

From the start of the meeting, participants were feverishly texting comments on what Superintendent Brian Harris was saying, and more often than not, the texts were much more insightful and interesting than Harris’ canned presentation.

Many of the texts were critical of the District, and around 7:00 PM, the texts were also silenced. The trail of comments were deleted as seen below.

It is also worth noting that the standard YouTube feature of free-form comments was also turned off. To view what we’ve described thus far, click here to view the recording of Tuesday’s meeting.

Yesterday afternoon, District 220 sent out a mass email with a link to a two hour Vimeo recording of the Tuesday meeting (seen here). However, the emailed recording failed to include over forty-five minutes of public comment from community members who waited patiently for two hours for their turn to speak their minds.

There is no question in our minds that the 220 Board of Education, but much more so Superintendent Brian Harris, failed to manage the expectations of parents, students and teachers in the months leading up to the unexpected announcement that fall classes would be all-remote learning last week.

As a result, the parties involved are upset and deserve to have their voices heard. For them to be silenced in the ways we’ve documented is tantamount to censorship.

Note: Those wishing to view the email sent by Dr. Harris yesterday can click here.

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Barrington’s 2019 resident survey results make for interesting reading

Posted in 220, Board of Education, Deception, Politics, School Districts, Topics Of Interest, Video Recordings, Video Streaming on August 19, 2019| 2 Comments »

In April of this year, the Village of Barrington released the results of a 16-item survey sent to 4,505 Barrington households. They received 1,111 responses (a 25% return rate), and we just got around to reviewing the information residents shared with the Village.

Of all the items Barrington included in their survey, one stood out in our eyes immediately as something our residents might find interesting. In question 12, respondents were asked to, “Select your top three (3) sources of information about Village news and activities,” as seen below:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Even with the option of selecting three (3) out of 12 options, the two choices were dead last were:

  • Village Board/Commission Meetings – 2.3%
  • Channel 4 – 3.3%

“Channel 4” in Barrington is a dedicated Comcast channel for all Village meetings. It essentially serves as a “Live Stream” service that two candidates were pitching heavily in the most recent Trustee elections.

Not only were “live streaming” of meetings of little interest to survey respondents, data kept on Village meetings dating back years demonstrate that people seldom looked at recordings of meetings after they’d occurred (the records can be viewed here).

On the bright side, we found little surprise that respondents preferred printed newsletters, emails and newspapers as their primary sources of information.

Further, last week the Barrington 220 Board of Education held two widely publicized meetings that were Live Streamed. Out of a potential audience in the tens of thousands in District 220, only one person tuned in to these streamed events outside of The Observer, and we suspect even that one participant may have been a 220 intern assigned to monitor the quality of the broadcast.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Based on the Village of Barrington and District 220 facts, no one in their right mind would continue to suggest that our Village invest in “Live Streaming” meetings with any expectation of return on investment.   But then again, what sane people suggesting this and other oddities have multiple Facebook pages (anonymous and named), multiple aliases they blog under and at times, post fictitious dialogs under their pseudonym’s hoping to inspire some form of coalition that never materializes.

Many readers may be surprised this goes on. Sadly, it does, especially every two years during election seasons.   

The full 2019 Barrington survey results can be viewed and downloaded here.

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Tonight’s District 220 Board of Education meeting agenda posted

Posted in 220, Agendas, Board of Education, School Districts, Video Recordings, Video Streaming on March 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

220 LogoThe Barrington District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 7:00 PM in the cafeteria of Barrington High School located at 616 West Main Street in Barrington.  A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.

Those who cannot attend the meeting may watch it live via video streaming or at a later date by clicking here.

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220 Board continues school start time discussions tonight

Posted in 220, Agendas, Board of Education, School Districts, Taxes, Video Recordings, Video Streaming on March 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

220 LogoThe Barrington District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at Barrington High School located at 616 West Main Street in Barrington.  A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.

According to the agenda, public comment will be limited to 15 minutes tonight, so perhaps the board thinks they have heard enough from parents and teachers on the matter of later start times for Barrington High School.  At this point, most high school students already have their class schedules set for the 2016-2017 school year, so this may lead to deferring a decision until the following year.

The video recording from the first public comment session held on February 23rd can be viewed here.  Tonight’s meeting can be viewed via video streaming by clicking here.

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