All D202 Students To Have New Class Timings Starting Oct. 20

PLAINFIELD, IL — As the first group of Plainfield School District 202 students prepares to return to school in person on Oct. 26, Superintendent Lane Abrell updated the Board of Education during the Tuesday meeting. He talked about new start times, learning schedules during hybrid classes and possible dates for when the other students will be able to resume classes on campus.

Pre-kindergarten to 12th grade multi-needs special education students — or Tier 1 students — will be the first ones to return to school in October. Preschool and kindergarten students — Tier 2 — will return to school the week of Nov. 2, while older students will return in small grade-related groups between Nov. 16 and Jan. 19, as part of the district's plan to slowly resume in-person learning over the next four months.

The district will release specific dates for the return of students in Tier 2 and beyond later this week, Abrell said.

As per the district's Return '20 plan, the Tier 2 student population will be divided into two groups. Group 1 will have in-person classes Monday and Tuesday and remote classes on Thursday and Friday. For Group 2, this order will be reversed. In both cases, Wednesday will remain a fully remote day for the schools to deep clean and sanitize the buildings. The Tier 1 students will have in-person all four days except Wednesday.

Abrell explained what hybrid instruction will look like. He said it will incorporate parts of remote and in-person learning simultaneously to create something that will have:

• Students receiving synchronous instruction from classroom teacher in person
• Students engaging in small group work with classroom teacher or with online peers
• Students receiving synchronous instruction from classroom teacher via live stream through Zoom/Google Meets
• Students engaging in asynchronous learning via flipped lesson while the teacher is delivering small group, targeted instruction to the class
• Students working on independent and asynchronous learning tasks

Associate superintendent Glenn Wood said that one of the pieces of feedback that parents provided was having all students keep their cameras on as otherwise it is hard for teachers to ascertain if someone is disengaged. He said this requirement will aid in making remote learning better.

According to him, there are two ways to ensure the success of the hybrid model:

• Having days with under 5 hours of instruction time since it is not safe to do lunches anymore.
• Making sure all students, whether hybrid or remote, have the same schedule.

Wood said because of this, there will be fewer changes when the district transitions to the next phases. The new class times will kick in starting Oct. 20. You can view the entire schedule here.

The board had approved the Return '20 plan on July 27. It includes three educational phases focused on safety and flexibility. The first phase started Aug. 31 with remote learning for all students.

Meanwhile, district administration continued monitoring numerous criteria including health metrics and safety guidelines, the availability of safety and cleaning supplies, regular and substitute staffing, and community feedback.

"As a 35-year veteran in education I clearly understand that remote learning is not optimal, but in the conditions that we were presented with initially and the options that we had, we felt it was in the best interest of everyone, and in the interest of a community health issue that we begin the school year with remote learning," Abrell said. "We want our students back and these are the first steps, hopefully, to get our students back to in-person learning."

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