Highland Park, Deerfield High Schools Set For Remote 2nd Semester

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Township High School District 113 administrators announced the suspension of all on-campus services at Deerfield and Highland Park high schools, effective Friday. District officials also said classroom instruction was likely to remain mostly remote for all or part of the second semester of the 2020-21 school year.

Superintendent Bruce Law announced Wednesday the district would transition to a fully remote model until further notice due to surging numbers of new coronavirus infections in the region.

Speaking at a special board meeting Thursday to discuss plans for the second semester, Law said Lake County's 617 percent increase in new daily infections in the past two months was difficult to conceptualize.

"The other reason for great concern is the governor's office said we're not even expecting to peak until January or February," Law said. "So, taking all of those things together, we have moved to all remote learning."

The halt of athletics and all other on-campus activities aligns with the Tier 3 mitigation measures and advisories from state and local health departments to stay at home as much as possible.

Students in the district have been attending classes remotely since the start of the year, while some services and extracurricular activities have been offered on campus. Last month, district officials announced plans to stick with that "remote plus services" model through the end of the semester.

Under the "remote plus" model, instruction is done remotely via Zoom software four days a week, with Mondays set aside for students to work individually. Students with individualized learning plans have opportunities to go to campus five days a week. Athletics, bands, clubs and other extracurricular events are also allowed on campus.

At Thursday's special board meeting, Law said many students and staff want to stick with the current instructional model for the rest of the 2020-21 school year. That would avoid having to switch teachers and keep schedules and classes intact but having some of them on campus via different hybrid models.

"We think we can do through services what other districts are trying to do through their hybrid, and we think we can do that better while having a better instructional program," Law said.

"I do feel very strongly about what teachers are telling us, what department chairs, administrators are telling us, that we have accomplished something in remote learning plus services, and we don't want to lose that."

All seven board members said they favored accepting the superintendent's recommendation against switching instructional models from the "remote plus" to a "simultaneous hybrid" or "intermediate hybrid" during the middle of the school year.

They encouraged administrators to keep finding more opportunities to bring small groups of students to campus for additional academic and social resources as part of "remote plus" in the second semester — and to focus especially acutely on identifying and supporting struggling students and those most disadvantaged by remote learning.

Board President Jodi Shapira said she hoped to see tents on campus as soon as the weather improves.

"We have got to get these kids on our campuses, and I don't care if it's for a lab, I don't care if it's for ... different small groups, I don't care if it's for yoga, I don't care if it's for taking a walk somewhere. We need to get our kids together, on our campuses, with small groups," Shapira said.

"The numbers are what they are, and we follow your recommendations and all those things. But we need to keep pushing ourselves every day to get one more, two more, ten more, whatever it is, kids on our campus each and every day," the board president said.

"I know now's not the time, so let me start by saying that. By no means do I think now is the time — but when our numbers turn, we need to be able to turn with it and turn on a dime, and we were doing it so well, and we were on that upward trajectory to getting more and more kids in, we got to amp it up."

Watch the Nov. 19 special meeting of the Township High School District 113 Board of Education or view online meeting materials »