D135 School Board Hopes To Ditch Zoom, Hire More Subs This Year

ORLAND PARK, IL — Orland School District 135's School Board met Monday night, discussing the upcoming school year, and what it may look like. Although nothing is set in stone to date, the district hopes to make remote learning a thing of the past.

During the nearly two hours long committee meeting, an over-flowing room of teachers, parents and children chimed in while the D135 school board debated what the best way to approach the 2021-22 school year will be amid the coronavirus pandemic. A number of options were presented, but ultimately, the board would like to offer the option to hire more substitute teachers for the district that can work with students when they are absent due to COVID-19.

This effort, if selected in the coming weeks, would lessen the burden on teachers having to simultaneously teach both online and in-person. The issue the board is currently facing is that there are a limited number of substitutes available within the district. In May alone, there were 18 unfilled absences — staff absent with no substitute to fill in — that had district schools scrambling to find someone to fill up class time during the day, according to Dave Snyder, director of curriculum for D135.

A building substitute teacher would provide daily remote instruction through Zoom, which may have students from multiple grade levels/classrooms at the same time. Teachers would not be connected to their classroom during the quarantine, but would collaborate with the substitutes to provide feed back, and submit lesson plans with work for students. The substitutes may not be trained in all areas they would be teaching, and would not have access to Skyward, classroom apps, Seesaw or Google Classroom.

Although it isn't favorable among most staff members, a livestream option was also presented, similar to the model that has been used throughout the pandemic. According to that plan, students would only be able to livestream into their classes while required to quarantine per IDPH COVID-19 protocols. Students absent for other reasons would follow traditional absent protocols, and livestreaming wouldn't be an option. The plan would give 24 hours to prepare a student who needs to video call into class, and they wouldn't be online during the entire class period.

Other plans for the school year also include going back to a pre-COVID schedule of full academic classes, with quarantine exceptions. CDC/IDPH guidance include masks should be worn by students who are not vaccinated at all times, physical distancing of at least three feet with masks when possible, a continuation of symptom monitoring and contact tracing.

As for sports, anything indoors will require a mask, while outdoor sports will not. Fully vaccinated students will not have to wear a mask, but schools may require face coverings and social distancing measures if they choose to.

No final decision on how the school year will look was made just yet, but one will be made and announced some time in the next five weeks, according to Snyder.