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A community group that pushed District 65 to set a date for in-person classes has launched a similar campaign to reopen Evanston Township High School.
The “Coalition to Reopen District 65 Schools” has renamed itself the “Coalition to Reopen Evanston Schools,” and in a news release today, listed ten questions they want Evanston Township High School administrators to answer about bringing children back to the building.
“We have a crisis,” said Coalition member and spokesperson Laurel O’Sullivan, a District 202 parent. “It’s time for us to reopen schools for all children.”
Both District 202 and Evanston/Skokie District 65 have been on remote learning since school began in the fall.
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With working conditions like those, it’s amazing that anyone would ever want to run for a seat on a local school board. Of course, despite all the downsides, there are huge upsides as well … the chance to positively influence thousands of young lives, work with interesting and dedicated people, and make your community a better place in which to live.
D65 sets another date for in-person schooling
Under new plan schools will stay open unless regional COVID positive rate tops 12%.
Washington Elementary School. (Google Maps)
For the fourth time since school began remotely in the fall, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 has set a date for resuming in-person classes.
The latest target, according to a letter to the community from Superintendent Devon Horton, is Feb. 16.
Previous targets were postponed due to the high coronavirus positivity rate in the area, and other COVID-related metrics such as hospital bed availability.
Horton says the decision to implement the hybrid model, in which some students will be in the building while others learn at home, was “not made hastily, nor as a result of political pressuring.”
D65 to update in-person school plans next week
Devon Horton.
School Superintendent Devon Horton says Evanston/Skokie District 65 will have an update about “the launch of our hybrid learning model and associated metrics” on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
The district’s more than 7,000 students have been on remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a memo to the community issued Friday, Horton said the district’s medical advisory committee met this week “to further discuss the science and safety behind the safe reopening of our schools.” That committee was formed after demands from a parents group, the Coalition to Reopen District 65 Schools. The panel is made up of local doctors, parents, leaders of District 65 employee unions, and district administrators.
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Still online for now. No date set for return to classrooms.
Marcus Campbell and Eric witherspoon.
The second semester at Evanston Township High School opened this week the same way the first semester did online. But District 202 Superintendent Eric Witherspoon said, “@e are committed to go to the hybrid model some time this semester.”
Witherspoon and ETHS principal Marcus Campbell addressed the coronavirus pandemic Friday morning on their “E-Town Live” YouTube program.
The superintendent said ETHS will stay on remote learning at least through January, and with a new, more infectious strain of COVID-19 starting to spread through the country, there’s no target date for re-opening the building.