Brief from the Board meeting on Sept. 3, 2020
Discussion - Successful Start to the 2020-2021 School Year
Although the start of the school year looked different this year with all students learning remotely, District 54 remains committed to connecting with, engaging, supporting and ensuring the academic success and well-being of our students.
District staff worked throughout the summer to develop a highly engaging, academically rigorous and whole child focused Virtual Learning Curriculum for every grade level across the district. The curriculum includes lessons we call First 15 Days, which focus on developing strong relationships between teachers and students, and between students and their classmates.
Staff also spent their summer participating in courses to enhance their skill set including topics such as curriculum planning, relationship development and engagement in a virtual setting.
The Special Education Department developed accommodations and modified instructional resources aligned to students’ Individualized Education Plan or 504 Plan, such as home sensory kits, virtual supports for families through the Autism Resource Center, materials kits for early childhood students and the Special Education Resources Website for families.
District 54 also continues to support families by hosting a virtual curriculum night, creating the Virtual Learning Family Website and offering technology support through the vlearning@sd54.org email. In addition, financially struggling families are served by free WiFi hotspots, food distribution, connecting them to community resources and financial assistance from the District 54 Education Foundation.
The Department of Language and Culture also modified instruction to align with a child’s language proficiency level. The English Learner Welcome and Assessment Center reopened in July with enhanced safety protocols and appointments to support social distancing.
With the return of most staff to our facilities, a wide range of safety measures have been implemented to mitigate the potential for spread of COVID-19, such as requiring masks, increased cleaning protocols, social distancing, increased signage, screening of staff and visitors, and health and safety training for all staff.
District 54 continues to monitor guidance released by the Cook County and Illinois Departments of Public Health, Illinois State Board of Education and our law firm to ensure we are adhering to all recommended and mandated safety practices related to stopping the spread of COVID-19.
Strict parameters govern when individuals must be excluded from a school environment. To date, 182 employees have been in or remain in quarantine. Currently, 106 employees are in quarantine for 10-14 days and 142 employees are working remotely due to an ADA accommodation. With students learning remotely, employees in quarantine who feel well may continue working remotely. Recent guidance from the state indicates that two or more positive cases in the same school within a 14-day period would result in the closing the school and having people work remotely for a minimum of 14 days.
The Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education released a report on August 17 that encourages districts to analyze the 7-day metrics in their county and surrounding counties to determine the viability of returning to different levels of in-person instruction based on whether community transmission is minimal, moderate or substantial.
District 54 will continue to look at returning to in-person instruction with a hybrid model based on local health metrics and guidance from the state and county. Special education students receiving therapies and English learners would be among the first to return, followed by our youngest learners.
We will need to be prepared to toggle back and forth between remote, hybrid and in-person instruction based on local health conditions and staffing availability. However, families opting for remote learning will have that option throughout the pandemic.
The District 54 Pandemic Advisory Team held its first meeting Sept. 1 to review current guidance and discuss logistical issues while examining a potential return to in-person learning. The committee will continue to meet to monitor local health conditions and offer input on decisions.
For more information from tonight's board meeting, click here.
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Current state guidelines don’t allow for us to gather such a large crowd in one space. So the 17th annual District 54 Run to Read is going virtual.
