Pushback Leads To More D-205 In-Person Learning

ELMHURST, IL — Last week, the Elmhurst school board heard a plan for in-person learning next semester that one official said was "the best we can offer."

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Elmhurst School District 205 board members pushed back on that argument. And it turned out the district could do better — if the goal is more in-person learning.

On Tuesday, the board approved a return to a blend of in-person and remote learning starting Jan. 11. Most of the discussion focused on the middle schools, with two of the three having capacity issues.

Under last week's "best-we-can-offer" plan, students at Churchville and Sandburg middle schools would get 30 hours of in-person instruction over four weeks, while those at Bryan would receive 26 hours. That would be down from 40 hours in the first semester. In October, the district ended in-person learning when coronavirus cases increased.

Under the new plan Tuesday, Churchville students would get 40 hours of in-person instruction every four weeks, compared with 35 at Bryan and Sandburg. All middle school students would get more in-person time than under last week's plan.

Other than Bryan and Sandburg, District 205 students would be divided into two groups for the purposes of in-person lessons. When one group attends a class in person, the other is connected remotely.

However, administrators determined that Sandburg and Bryan lacked the space to handle half the students at one time and still respect social distancing. So they are planning to divide those students into three groups.

Board member Courtenae Trautmann said she believed the district could provide even more in-person-time for Bryan and Sandburg students. She said she asked her sixth-grade child, who attends Bryan, about how often there were empty desks in classes the first semester and that she was told almost all the time.

She questioned whether the district could place "overages" of students — selected randomly — into other spaces such as gymnasiums and libraries for a class at a time.

Assistant Superintendent Scott Grens said the district has already taken that issue into account.

"We don't have any other opportunities," he said. "We have maximized to the fullest, and that is it. We have tried everything."

Trautmann suggested the gyms were a good place to handle overflows of students.

"We're putting aside these gymnasiums solely for PE and no other use," she said. "I don't want to diminish the importance of PE. I don't want our community and our valuable PE instructors to think that I don't think it's important. But there are hard choices to be made during the pandemic and the constraints on space in our facilities."

Grens said that wouldn't work. At Bryan, 25 of the 179 classes offered are physical education, he said.

The board voted unanimously for the return to in-person learning Jan. 11, including the plan for the middle schools.

Just before the vote, Trautmann encouraged administrators at Sandburg and Bryan to find ways to avoid dividing students into three groups, which results in less in-person learning. She said that in her heart, she didn't think that system was needed.

"I want to be creative and look at how many kids are in the building at any given time," she said.