‘Like a celebration:’ Good news about vaccines, Chromebooks, finances at Sycamore school board meeting

After months of reporting about Chromebook delays and adaptive pauses, Sycamore District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder presented lots of what he called good news to the school board on Tuesday.

Wilder called the return of middle and high school students to in-person classes on Jan. 19 one of the best days he’s had in the district. He also reported that the Chromebooks for the district - ordered in May and continually delayed, throwing another complication in the district’s remote learning plan - will be distributed to middle schoolers on Monday.

“I’ve had a lot of great days in my time in Sycamore and that was one of them,” Wilder said of the Jan. 19 return of the middle and high schools.

Roxanne Horton, director of technology for the district, said that the Chromebooks have arrived at the vendor and are being unboxed and updated in preparation for distribution. The Chromebooks in use currently by middle schoolers will then go to second through fifth graders, a process that should take about a week.

“I can watch the updates happening on my computer in the background, and I’m distracted several times a day in checking how many are enrolled at the time,” Horton said. It’s making it real and exciting. ... It’s a big weight off our shoulders.”

The touchscreen Chromebooks for kindergarten and first graders, ordered about six weeks after the middle school Chromebooks, still haven’t arrived, Horton said.

There was also good financial news for the district, presented by Nicole Stuckert, assistant superintendent for business services. She said the district is not projected to hit a negative find balance in the 2021 fiscal year.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been in a meeting with such good news,” board president James Dombek said. “It really is like a celebration.”

The board also passed an issue of a bond, not to exceed $2.9 million. Part would be used to pay off a previous 2013 bond, which Stuckert said would result in a present-day savings of $200,000. The rest will be used to pay for the prioritized projects in the master plan.

The measure passed 6-0 with board member Eric Jones abstaining.

Widler said another highlight of the last week was that 190 staff members were vaccinated against the coronavirus. He said that represents about 1/3 of what they expect.

He said none were vaccinated this week. The county is offering vaccines on a first-come, first-served basis based on who signs up after the schools are notified. He said this will also be the process for the second dosage of the vaccine for those who already got the first shot.

“The vaccine is really going to help us not constantly have to worry about staffing levels,” Widler said. “It was a highlight from last week.”

Widler said that staffing, a problem at the elementary when it returned in-person briefly last year, was not as bad so far.

Wilder also presented the next steps for the district, although will no firm time frame. One of them was extending the length of the school day, which would present transportation challenges as well as issues with lunches at the middle and high schools.

“It’s not that we can’t do it, it will just look different than it normally would,” Wilder said. “I think it’s a possibility.

Another step is in-person school on Fridays, alternating A and B students on alternate weeks. Currently Fridays are all remote. But he said the challenge there is finding enough support time for students who have chosen to stay remote.

And with a return to five-day or full-time schooling, he said that would likely take a student vaccine. He said a reduction in 6 feet of social distancing as mandated by the CDC would help as well but didn’t think that would happen.

“Unless something changes I think it’s going to take student vaccinations to be approved and available for students to be able to return five days a week, every day,” Wilder said. “That’s the goal. I would love to see that happen this school year but we need to sit tight until the tests and trials are all over for a vaccine for students younger than 16.”

Wilder also talked about the emergency remote learning day the district called for Tuesday. Instead of a traditional snow day - the county received between 3 and 7 inches - it was an emergency remote learning day.

He said it differs from a normal remote learning day as there was no streaming class portion.

“I sure feel like the Grinch taking away a snow day,” Wilder said. “But the good news is we’ll be out at the end of the school year in the warm weather and be able to enjoy it.”