D308 Candidates Comment On District's Response To The Pandemic

OSWEGO, IL — The Oswego School District 308 has faced criticism regarding its remote and hybrid learning plans amid the pandemic since last March. During a virtual forum on Wednesday, seven candidates, who are seeking four open seats on the Board of Education, talked about how they think the district handled its response to COVID-19 and what more can be done if a future health crises arises.

Candidates Keisha Earl of Oswego, Eugene Gatewood of Aurora, Katie Heiden of Oswego, Jennifer Johnson of Oswego, Dr. Donna Marino of Aurora, LaTonya Simleton of Oswego and Eulalia Valdez of Oswego participated in the forum hosted by the Aurora Area League of Women Voters.

The district’s more than 17,000 students went into fully remote learning last spring when the pandemic began and the majority of them remained in fully remote learning until January when the district announced the beginning of phased hybrid learning plans.

Simelton declined to pass judgment on the current board.

"When something such as a pandemic happens, it really can throw your focus off," she said. "I think when you have a strategic plan, you have core values and beliefs. It might shake you for a minute when something external comes in to attack where you're going, but having core values and beliefs will keep you going in the right direction."

Valdez also declined to pass judgment on the board, saying that the events of the past year was "uncharted territory" and that it provided valuable lessons regarding learning opportunities for the marginalized populations and special education students.

Johnson said it is easy to "play hindsight and armchair quarterback to a pandemic that no one else has been through before," and so she refused to evaluate the current board members because she believes they did the best they could.

However, she pointed out two issues — lack of emergency preparedness and financial stability.

"Decisions are made when the finances are not there to support better decisions, and I think that we have to be forward-thinking in how we deliver high-growth educational outcomes, meeting students where they’re at equitably, supporting the social and emotional aspects - not just for our students, but our teachers as well post-pandemic,” she said. "I think that they have tried their best, I think that they have opened themselves up to the public, to the community, their constituents, to hear what went wrong."

Johnson said that she hoped the district could get students that want to take part in in-person learning more time in schools and "maximize their instructional minutes."

Marino agreed with Johnson and did not criticize the choices made by the current board members.

"I could not sit here and criticize our Board for how they’ve handled this pandemic," Marino said. "We’ve never dealt with anything like this before. There has been information, misinformation, we’re constantly learning about this virus and there’s so much we still don’t know. With the information and resources they had, I agree that they did the best they could."

However, Marino said that her children are still engaged in remote learning because her family is high-risk and said that she was not pleased with the changes to their schedules saying that they only had 31 minutes per subject.

"I'd like to see us do better, I'd like to see us get back to a normal schedule as quickly as possible, while keeping the kids safe," she said.

Earl also agreed that the district did the best it could and said going forward, she would also look at the cleanliness of district schools, making sure that they are safe at all times for students as they return to in-person learning.

Gatewood said the district had to consider many variables when making decisions, and that the administrators did a really good job planning and adjusting and implementing the plan based on what the board approved. He said the district needs to focus on the aftermath of the pandemic.

"How will our students be impacted, and based on that information, we should start putting plans in place, not only to help them now, but also to anticipate those students that we know have been historically underserved or marginalized so that we can have plans in place to help them sooner if another pandemic or health crisis happens," he said.

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