On March 13, 2020, the Governor shut down the schools. Children cheered. Parents gasped. D36 dug in. Two weeks later, school was back in session.
Kind of.
Remote learning was on, and at least until the end of the school year, on our collective plate. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends – anyone with a pulse – replaced teachers. Tablets, laptops, and computers replaced desktops. Homes replaced schools. Dining rooms, guestrooms, basements, and storage closets replaced classrooms. Zoom became a verb. Synchronous and asynchronous became Words of the Day. Virtual became our new reality.
Happy 100th Birthday, Winnetka’s Progressive Education.
(Virtual) Reality Check
Parents, students, and staff were good with it. That was April. By June, not so much. Get the kids back in the classroom and out of our hair. Teaching is a calling.
The CDC, Illinois Board of Ed, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Illinois Department of Public Health said no amount of bandwidth could deliver the breadth of experience the classroom could. And there was that growing mental health thing. D36 was way ahead of them. Make it safe, then make it happen. They'd been on it since March 14th.
A Knock-Your-Sox-Off First Day Back
Parents were in awe. Newsfeeds were on fire. (Teachers were wary, but that’s their job.) More than 1,500 dino-, super-hero-, and Frozen-masked K-8 students reported for duty – half in the morning, half in the afternoon. Alphabetical. In “pods” that could be quickly and effectively quarantined if need be. The rest joined in the off-hours fully remote.
The three “r’s” were lapped by personal hygiene, spatial awareness, and infection control. 60093 exhaled.
The new normal.
Making Good on that 'We're all in this Together' Thing
From Day 1, D36 made it clear that the health of our 1656 little potential superspreaders and their teachers would be a community-wide effort. Add "partner" to the Words of the Day.
They went full-on open book. As they learned it, you learned it. Letters, updates, PowerPoints on steroids. An unprecedented engagement-inducing communication blitz that left no doubt about what was happening, why, how, with what, and for how long.
In a feel-your-pain sort of way, the District reminded our village of pedagogical plate-spinners that they didn’t have to be perfect to be good, where to go for help, and how to stay sane.
Then to put a period on serious, made each family sign a Health and Safety Pledge.
Do. Your. Part. Own. Your. Decisions. We will get through this.
They did. We are.
Zero Classroom Transmission. So Far.
This kind of awesome doesn’t just happen.
While other communities put politics over pedantry, D36 clocked more than 4,000 summer hours, postponed vacays or 86’d them altogether.
Prepping for the test, the District teamed up with teachers, parents, community leaders, School Board members, administrators from other regional, state and national school districts, and consultants to gather and crunch data, analyze various scenarios, and implement logistical plans. No stone unturned. Nailed that "A."
Armed with a $2.5MM budget – offset by $894,500 in 2020 COVID savings, and $311,000 CARES ACT cash – the District:
Added staff for increased classrooms needed for social distancing.
Hired health clerks to help manage additional safety procedures.
Ramped up cleaning agency staff for daily high touch-point cleaning and electrostatic spraying to sanitize school buildings to within an inch of their lives.
Purchased tents for outdoor learning, PPE (masks, desk shields, face shields, etc.) for students and staff, HEPA filtration units for all learning spaces, and iPads for each kid without one.
Contracted with Schoology Learning Management System and created a technology manual to work with it.
In response to the relentless molecular whack-a-mole, produced a 55-page 2020-2021 Planning Guide to all things COVID.
Produced a series of Parent Technology Handbooks.
Created a designated COVID resources section on the District’s Website to house all of the above and more including our fave – the Metrics and Data Dashboard – updated, yes, weekly.
Measured and analyzed each leaning space in each facility for capacity for social distancing – 6ft, nose-to-nose. As transmission data was released, classrooms were configured and reconfigured.
...and learned there’s more to swiss cheese than cheese.
Next Up? Bye-Bye Pod People.
...and a lot of we-still-can’t-predict-the-future.
In March, if vaccines and case counts cooperate, Washburn expects to be able to combine AM and PM pods and extend its in-school day to at least 4 hours. Kids will be with their friends again. School will look more like school than it’s looked in almost a year.
Skokie and the K-4’s and Skokie will consider the longer day once teacher vaccinations reach “a certain level.” Check here. Often.
Virtual’s still on for those families for whom timing and risk tolerance is not there yet.
Roadmap to Reality
The Roadmap explained and updated.
A Generation of Learners Lost?
Not in their lesson plans. NWEA – the org that helps schools assess students’ skills – advises “meeting students where they are at in their learning, not where they normally would be.”
Our teacher-learners have made it this far. Probably working on that curriculum even as we speak. Stay tuned.
Can't Wait to Close the Book on One of the Most Curious Educational Episodes
of Our Time?
You and our 270 or so D36 teachers and admin staff. But COVID's not done with us yet, so try these for extra credit.
Check out the number of District cases – updated weekly.
Bookmark the Metrics and Data Dashboard.
See what's happening in other Illinois schools.
And because the sooner, the moot-er... register for your vaccine here. Herd immunity, giddy-up.