Cross-district rally to call for five days of in-person learning

Parent groups from Geneva, Indian Prairie, Kaneland, Naperville, Oswego, Plainfield and St. Charles school districts will participate in a rally on March 14 in downtown Naperville to call for five days of in-person learning.

The rally will take place at 11 a.m. at Riverwalk Free Speech Pavilion located near the Dandelion Fountain at Jackson Avenue and Webster Street. Among those scheduled to speak are former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, radio host Amy Jacobson and candidates running for the Plainfield School Board that are endorsed by the group Parents for Choice.

In St. Charles School District, elementary school students are doing in-person learning, while middle and high school students have a hybrid of in-person and remote learning.

“Remote doesn’t work for everybody,” said Shannon Sullivan, of the group D303 Move Forward, which has been calling for the district to have in-person learning five days a week at all grade levels. “Parents feel like they are the only people acknowledging that kids are suffering and failing. People just want to be able to have their voice heard.”

Sullivan has two children that attend St. Charles North High School.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines continue to emphasize that districts should have six feet of separation between students. Assistant Superintendent Mark Moore had previously told St. Charles School Board members that because of those guidelines, “trying to have school for all students every day is simply not possible. There is not enough space in any middle school or high school to allow that to happen.”