Untrue Pandemic Claim From Elmhurst School Hopeful

ELMHURST, IL – A candidate for the Elmhurst School District 205 board recently made a claim about the district's reopening during the pandemic that could not withstand the facts.

The candidate, Lan Li, now says he may have misspoken.

Li was among the candidates who took part in the Elmhurst League of Women Voters candidate forum. They were asked about how the district handled the pandemic.

"I don't think we did a very good job considering that Elmhurst was the last school district in Illinois to reopen," Li said. "Considering how many districts there are, I think that's a little bit excessive."

The problem with his statement: It wasn't true.

Illinois has more than 850 school districts. Patch has been unable to find a central database that shows the reopening dates for each one during the pandemic.

Patch also lacks the time to research that information for every district. So it checked just one – Chicago Public Schools, the state's largest by far.

Compared with Chicago schools, Elmhurst opened its doors much earlier.

Elmhurst schools reopened for at least some in-person learning on Oct. 5, 2020. That did not happen in Chicago until Jan. 11, 2021.

At the time, then-Superintendent Dave Moyer said in a statement, "D205 was extremely excited to be the first unit district in DuPage County to welcome back all students to campus for hybrid learning during the week of Oct. 5."

As for returning to a regular in-person schedule, Elmhurst began April 12, 2021. That compares to Aug. 30, 2021, for Chicago schools.

To be sure, Elmhurst schools reopened later than private schools and some other districts in the area. Because of that, many parents protested. It was a turbulent time, in which Moyer left his job earlier than expected.

Patch asked Li about his claim Monday. He backed away from it.

"To clarify, it is difficult for me to pinpoint the exact time each surrounding school district reopened," Li said in an email. "During my previous statement, I may have misspoken in haste. However, I do recall protests occurring at school buildings when some neighboring districts returned to in-person learning, and I believe Oak Brook reopened before our district did."

He said it was worth noting area private schools reopened sooner and did not experience major issues with the coronavirus.

"This raises concerns regarding whether the current school board is satisfied with students who can afford private school tuition to get in-person learning," Li said. "They should have exercised local control and reopened the schools as soon as possible."

During the forum, other candidates also responded to the question about the district's handling of the pandemic.

Candidate Tom Chavez, who was vocal at the time on the issue, said the district struggled. He said morbidity from the coronavirus from first grade through 44 years old, the average age of a teacher, was "very little" and "similar to the common flu."

Incumbent Beth Hosler and candidates Kelly Asseff, Kelly Henry and Ben Zulauf all said the district did the best it could with the available information.

"I'm confident the district would do everything they could to ensure in-person learning and doing it safely if there was ever a need in the future," Henry said.

Candidate Linda Nudera said she was focused on her teaching job in another district at the time. But she said she believed the local district's efforts were successful "because the kids are all here and the teachers are here, and things look well."

Candidate Jammie Esker Schaer said her boys did not like remote learning.

"I wish they had been in school the entire time," she said. "I did fight for the kids to return to school without masks, but I think we all survived and everyone is stronger for this."

Incumbent Courtenae Trautmann was unable to take part in the forum because of a coaching engagement.

The election is April 4.