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Barrington District 220 moves return to in-person learning a week earlier, to Oct. 19 (?)

Posted in 220, Board of Education, District 220 referendum, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Resident Spotlights, School Districts, The New Normal? on October 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Editorial note: September 25th we reported, “220’s Harris announces target start date for return to in-person Hybrid moved up to Oct. 19.”

Barrington Area Unit District 220 students will return to some in-person learning Oct. 19 — a week earlier than initially planned — school officials said Tuesday.

Students in Barrington Area Unit District 220 can go back to school Oct. 19 — a week earlier than anticipated — with a hybrid model of in-person and distance learning, if all proceeds well, district officials said.

About 68% of families in the district said they plan to send kids back to school with hybrid learning — a blend of in-person and remote learning — while 31% are opting to continue with only remote learning, which the district will provide for whoever wants it. About 1% remain undecided.

However, the breakdown varies a lot by school, Superintendent Brian Harris told the district’s board of education Tuesday night.

Barrington High School and the two middle schools largely mirror the district average. But at Hough Elementary School, as many as 89% of families are choosing hybrid learning, while at Sunny Hill Elementary, only 30% are doing so.

A total of 44 certified staff members asked for a leave of absence after the district announced its hybrid plan, Harris said. Fifteen of those positions were filled and nine are being filled, but 20 staff members that teach in “highly specialized areas” are hard to replace, Harris said.

The district will continue looking for replacements, but meanwhile the plan is to reassign or hire staff members to supervise students in classrooms while their teachers continue virtual instruction, he said.

Nine people, mostly parents, spoke at the board meeting Tuesday to advocate reopening immediately for full in-person learning. They cited hardship for families and the negative effects of virtual learning on students’ performance and mental health.

“Our district is spiraling downward. Our children are regressing and losing knowledge,” parent Heather Ewalt said. Ewalt, also a substitute teacher in the district, said teachers say in private they have the same concerns.

Read on here.

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St. Viator halts in-person classes, athletics after ‘higher than acceptable’ COVID-19 rate

Posted in Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Public Safety, The New Normal? on October 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Students returned for the new school year at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights on Aug. 24, but new positive COVID-19 cases over the weekend led officials Monday to temporarily switch to remote learning.

Six weeks after starting the school year in person, St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights closed its doors Monday and switched to remote learning because of a “higher than acceptable” COVID-19 incidence rate within the school community, officials said.

New positive COVID-19 test cases among those in the school were reported over the weekend and during the overnight hours Monday, reaching “our threshold for keeping our students and faculty safe,” school President Brian Liedlich and Principal Karen Love wrote in a letter to parents.

School spokesman Jim Mitchell did not say whether the positive COVID-19 tests came from students or faculty members.

Officials plan to resume classes in two weeks, on Oct. 19, but said conditions will dictate that decision.

For now, all classes are remote, and students will be expected to follow their block schedule via Zoom video conferencing. All extracurricular activities, including athletic practices and games, are suspended.

Most of St. Viator’s 837 students chose the school’s in-person learning option, with a few choosing remote, when the academic year began Aug. 24.

Read more here.

Editorial note: They made a good go of it for six (6) weeks, and if all goes well they’ll be back in classrooms in two weeks.

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District 220 Board meets tonight

Posted in 220, Agendas, Board of Education, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Resident Spotlights, School Districts, The New Normal?, Video Streaming on October 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

The Barrington CUSD 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 7:00 PM at 515 West Main St.  A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.

This will be the last scheduled meeting of the Board prior to some students returning to classrooms on October 19th (see “220’s Harris announces target start date for return to in-person Hybrid moved up to Oct. 19”). Those wishing to watch the meeting remotely can do so by clicking here.

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Barrington District 220 issues “Hybrid Mode” update, corrects deadline date for plan selection

Posted in 220, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts, The New Normal? on September 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

On Monday, Sept. 28 Barrington 220 held a virtual parent Q&A session about the district’s plans to return to in-person learning in a Hybrid mode. Parents were able to ask questions and get answers in real time from principals and other district administrators.

As a reminder, the deadline for all families to log in to Infinite Campus and select either the Hybrid plan or continue with Distance Learning until winter break is Wednesday, September 30 at 11:59pm (a deadline of Nov. 30 was emailed in error earlier today).

For more information, visit: barrington220.org/coronavirus.

To watch the Q&A video, click here.

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Board of Trustees meets tonight

Posted in Agendas, Audio Recordings, EJ&E/Canadian National, ePacket Agendas, Financial Reports, Land Use, Lighting Ordinance, Property Taxes, Real Estate, Taxes, The New Normal?, Traffic, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Zoning Board on September 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Our Board of Trustees holds their monthly meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Some of the topics for discussion and/or vote include:

  • [Vote] A Resolution Authorizing Execution of an Intergovernmental Agreement Amongthe Villages of Bartlett, Hoffman Estates, Barrington Hills, Barrington, Deer Park, Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Mettawa, Green Oaks and the Cityof North Chicago for Engineering Work to Complete the Recertification of a QuietCorridor Along the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad Res 20 –
  • [Vote] An Ordinance Granting an Amendment to the Existing Special Use Permit for anExpansion of the Parking Lot at 160 Hawthorne Road Ordinance 20 –
  • [Vote] An Ordinance Approving a Map Amendment Rezoning the Property Located at32W 393 Algonquin Road from R1 Single Family Residence District to B-3 GeneralBusiness District Ordinance 20 –
  • [Vote] A Resolution Authorizing the Execution of a Retail Sales Agreement with AVISystems, Inc. for Audio Streaming Equipment and Software for Village MeetingsResolution 20 –

A copy of their agenda can be viewed and downloaded here. To (try to) listen to the meeting, dial 508-924-1464.

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Good news for some: Don’t rush to DMV, White says, with three-month extension for licenses

Posted in Springfield, The New Normal? on September 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Illinois residents with licenses or ID cards that have expired or will in October, November, December or January now have through Feb. 1 to renew.

Drivers with expiring licenses will get another reprieve through Feb. 1, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White announced Wednesday.

It’s the latest of several driving-related deadlines White has extended related to the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to prevent crowds at facilities.

The previous extension stretched to Nov. 1, but now Illinois residents with licenses or ID cards that expired or will expire in October, November, December or January have extra time to renew.

The deadline to renew vehicle stickers, which was extended through Nov. 1, remains firm since Illinoisans can do that task online at cyberdriveillinois.com.

Read more here.

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Algonquin’s District 300 votes to keep grades 4 through 12 remote until January

Posted in 300, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts, The New Normal? on September 23, 2020| Leave a Comment »

A crowd gathered at a D300 reopen rally Tuesday to have children return to in-person school at the Algonquin-based Community Unit District 300 Central Office on Harnish Road in Algonquin. Ryan (Rayburn/Shaw Media)

While Algonquin-based Community Unit District 300’s board approved bringing kindergarten through third grade students to a hybrid learning model as soon as it is safely possible, grades four through 12 will be remote until their second semester in January.

A specific date for kindergarten through third grade students to go to this hybrid model was not set at the school board meeting Tuesday.

The decision to bring younger students to a hybrid model earlier is because kindergarten through third-graders are at what board members say is a “pivotal” time in their education, and it is the age group that is struggling with remote learning the most.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, District 300 schools have been learning and teaching remotely since the beginning of the year.

At the meeting, a couple of hybrid models were proposed for kindergarten through high school students in October, although some school board members took issue with making this transition in the middle of the semester.

Read more here.

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Nine suburban districts started school in person. How are they faring against COVID-19?

Posted in 220, 300, Board of Education, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, The New Normal? on September 23, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Katie Myers teaches English on Thursday at Butler Junior High School in Oak Brook. Brian Hill (Staff Photographer)

It took all summer for Butler Elementary District 53 in Oak Brook to get ready for students to return to the classroom this fall.

Some students opted for remote learning, but about 60% of them returned to the schools. They started with half days, and more than a week ago began all-day in-person learning. The district has been able to avoid any cases of COVID-19 among students, faculty and staff, something Superintendent Paul O’Malley chalks up to the summerlong preparations.

“Overall, to date, it’s been pretty successful,” he said.

District 53 is one of nine suburban public school districts that started the school year with in-person learning. Administrators in several of the nine, which tend to have smaller student populations than many in the suburbs, report their districts remain free of COVID-19. One, Itasca Elementary District 10, is reporting four staff members and as many as five students have contracted the disease since school started Aug. 20. All the cases were contracted out of school, administrators said.

Northbrook Elementary District 28 officials notified parents Tuesday that one person at Greenbriar Elementary has tested positive.

When that happens, state guidelines require that anyone who is within six feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes must quarantine for 14 days or until medically cleared. Rooms have to be deep-cleaned and health departments are also notified.

“Yes, we have received reports of COVID-19 cases associated with schools — several individual cases and some clusters. Although this is unfortunate, it is not a surprise due to the high levels of community transmission,” said Karen Ayala, director of the DuPage County Health Department, which is not making that data public.

Read more here.

Related: “Some elementary students are back in class, and suburban districts are weighing what can come next”

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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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