District 113 Moves Toward Reopening As Bomb Threat Targets Rally

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — During a meeting where a demonstration of parents outside was targeted by a bomb threat on social media, school board members in Township High School District 113 set a special meeting for Feb. 1 to determine a date to begin offering a hybrid of remote and in-person learning for students for the first time since the emergence of the coronavirus in Illinois a year ago.

Families of about 60 percent of students at Deerfield High School and 40 percent of students at Highland Park high school have indicated they want to return to campus part-time, according to administrators. Of those, roughly a quarter would attend a given day of school. So under the current draft of the hybrid model there would be anywhere from 185 to 231 per building scheduled to attend a given day of school.

At Monday's board meeting, a majority of the board signaled they were ready to accelerate the move to a hybrid learning schedule after administrators announced appointments had been arranged for all staff to receive vaccines as part of a partnership with Walgreens and a half-dozen other area districts.

Superintendent Bruce Law said he first discussed a vaccine partnership with Walgreens along with administrators of Bannockburn School District 106 and North Shore School District 112 after the pilot program was first announced by Deerfield School District 109.

Law said he talked to every other school superintendent in Lake County about his plan and on Monday arranged that Zion Elementary, Zion-Benton, Beach Park and North Chicago school districts would also be included in the same point of distribution, or POD, group. The seven-school partnership includes about 3,000 staff members, and the superintendent said the idea was supported by county public health officials.

"Obviously my first responsibility is to the students and staff of District 113," Law said. "Since students aren't eligible for vaccines right now we're really talking about staff. So how do I, as quickly as I can, get vaccines to the District 113 staff without going against our equity values? The way we've done that is we've got a lot more districts into this discussion."

District 113 staff are scheduled to begin receiving their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 14, which Law described as a "very nice Valentine's gift."

Board member Dan Struck, who suggested waiting about five weeks until the second doses of the vaccines are fully effective before shifting to a hybrid schedule, said the Walgreens partnership seemed like an "inside job" developed by someone at District 109.

"I have to confess that I still feel uncomfortable about the fact that this is a scarce resource, and we're now reaching a situation where there are multiple tracks instead of a shared effort and a shared broader community effort to share this scarce resource," Struck said. "It feels more like charity — it's a result of the beneficence of these companies and the school districts that are able to form a POD that they bring other districts in. And there's a real danger that that won't happen everywhere, and that's something we need to be careful about because that's not equity then."

The District 113 school board has opted for a "remote plus services" model since the start of the 2019-20 school year, as administrators warned implementing a hybrid learning plan could disrupt scheduling and risk stopping and starting repeatedly while not educating students as effectively as possible.

That decision allowed the district to avoid the decision of when and whether to implement an "adaptive pause" as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surged in the fall. After Gov. J.B. Pritzker imposed new tiered coronavirus mitigation measures in November, the district paused on-campus services, including athletics. Then in December, the board determined to use an incidence rate metric suggested by state and federal health officials for determining the level of community spread.

Under those metrics, fewer than 15 new cases per 100,000 people would allow for a move to part-time in-person instruction. As of Jan. 23, that rate had fallen below 25, down from a peak of more than 83 in mid-November.

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for a hybrid learning plan in District 113, and parents advocating reopening have been vocal during the public comment portions of meetings.

There has also been opposition to reopening. A rally of parents in favor of increasing in-person instruction outside the Jan. 25 board meeting was targeted by a bomb threat on social media. Police said a minor is being investigated in connection with the threat.

Board member Lizzy Garlovsky asked Law when administrators would ready to shift to a hybrid plan, noting many students at other area schools have been attending classes with teachers who are not vaccinated. She said parents and students who have been pushing for a return to some in-person instruction were interested in a potential hybrid learning timeline.

"There's lots and lots of people who are ready to send their kids back to school without the teachers being vaccinated, and that's another answer we have to provide, is if that's going to happen — and before we knew about the vaccine, when was that going to happen? We still don't have that answer. We still need to give that answer," she said.

"If you said to the teachers, 'Tomorrow we're going back to school, hybrid's starting,' what is the earliest date — given what we're talking about by giving them enough notice — what is the earliest date your team can be ready?"

Law was not prepared to provide such a date at the Jan. 25 meeting.

"I really feel that is a great question. It's a hard question, and I'm not sure it's one that I want to speculate. I think I would really like to talk to some people," the superintendent said, suggesting he could be ready to propose a date at Monday's special meeting.

Administrators are due to present two proposals for possible COVID-19 testing programs at the meeting. Several board members suggested implementing a testing program could be a prerequisite for launching a hybrid learning schedule. Several public and private high schools in the area, including New Trier and Lake Forest high schools and North Shore Country Day School, have contracted with testing providers to screen students and staff.

Related:
Highland Park School Board Elections To Be Uncontested In April
District 113 Set For Remote 2nd Semester
Highland Park, Deerfield Districts Plan For Return To School
Board President Apologizes Discussing Teacher Performance

Board member Gayle Byck, who was first appointed to the board in 2017 before running for a full term in 2019, called on the Highland Park and Deerfield community to stop yelling at each other and start listening to one another.

Byck said there was no right decision for the board to make. It would be wrong, she said, to force people to stay at home or to force them to return to school buildings against their will.

"Every decision feels like the wrong decision. The people who want the schools open are the loudest voices, but we also regularly hear from people who are thanking us for being remote and begging us to stay that way," Byck said.

Board members have received insulting emails accusing them of doing permanent damage to the district's students, she said. Some parents have demanded resignations from the board.

"But not one single person who has been trashing us incessantly via emails and on social media is willing to step up to the plate. None of us who write to us as if you have all the answers is willing to sit here at the board table — metaphorically, as we're on Zoom. The worst emails we received have been from countless people telling us that we would be responsible if, God forbid, there was a suicide in our district," Byck said, her voice breaking with emotion.

"Let me repeat that, there are people telling us that we, the school board, and our district administrators, would be responsible for teen suicides. That is a horribly cruel thing to say to someone. I personally am a wreck at the thought of that happening, as you can tell," she said. "There are also people who believe that if we open the schools and a student, teacher, staff member or family member, one of those, dies from COVID that we, the school board would be responsible. I personally am a wreck at the thought of that happening."

Several students spoke during the public comment portion of Monday's four-and-a-half-hour board meeting.

A Deerfield High School junior said she wanted to share her experience with the district's remote learning.

"During the week, every day I wake up for e-learning. I sit in the bed with the lights off, my camera off, my mic off, and I don't participate in class and it's gotten to the point where I can't even cheat on my assignments anymore because I just have no motivation to do them at all," she said.

The student said she did not want to add to the negativity board members have faced but warned of deteriorating mental health among students in the district.

"Emotionally I'm drained, physically I'm drained and I just want to go back to school. School was my anchor. School was the reason I was motivated and willing to do things, and I feel like I'm just slowly losing hope as time goes on and I just really want something to look forward to again. And that's really all I can hope for," she added.

"I really hope you hear what I have to say, and you understand the urgency of this situation, and I just want to leave you with a question: what will it take to get us back to school? An increase of suicides? An increase of depression, an increase of anxiety, of eating disorders, a decrease of hygiene? Truly, what will it take? Because at this point I think that many students have hit rock bottom."

A junior at Highland Park High School said he and many of his friends had found it difficult to stay focused while working from home.

"I feel totally unmotivated to do my work. I went from being an all-A student, all honors classes, to literally: I have three C's. I've never gotten a C in my life, and sadly I have to blame e-school on that," he said.

"I have ADHD, it's incredibly hard for me to learn in this environment and there's so many other peers and friends that I have that feel that exact same way. It's lonely. I'm sitting in my room, my mom encourages me to move around the house, which I do I go to different places for different classes and it helps but it just doesn't compare. I feel just like the only thing that's going to make this change is going to school."

The student said he and his peers have felt similarly disconnected.

"I used to just love to learn and I would always want to do the best I could possible do and learn the most and at this point all I care about is getting my work submitted, and having everything turned in," he said. "I've noticed that and I'm concerned for myself. How am I going to function in college when I've gone from a straight-A student who loves school and has a zest for school to is now a student who barely even cares to submit his work and is just struggling?"