Oswego School District parents continue call for return to full in-person learning

Oswego School District 308 parents continued their call for a return to five days per week of in-person learning each week for the district’s students at the March 15 Board of Education meeting.

During the meeting, the board discussed possible changes to the Phase 3 hybrid learning plan that it had approved at its March 1 meeting.

In the days since the Board’s March 1 votes on the plan, the Illinois State Board of Education updated its guidance for in-person instruction amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The new recommendations reduced the minimum for social distancing to three feet between students and fully vaccinated teachers and other staff.

In addition, the ISBE guidance updated school capacity limits and now defines them as a building’s ability to accommodate social distancing.

In response to the ISBE’s updated guidance, both Indian Prairie School District 204 serving Aurora and Naperville, and Naperville School District 203, have notified their parents that students will be able to return to in-person instruction five days a week after they return from their spring break.

At its March 1 meeting, the Board voted 5-2 to leave the elementary plan as it was originally proposed by administrators Feb. 22, meaning that the district’s hybrid elementary students will attend school in person for four mornings a week for instruction in reading, math and writing. In the afternoon, students will receive digital instruction in art, music and physical education.

The board also voted, 6-1, to shift the junior high and high school schedules to four days a week of in-person learning for five hours a day.

“My kids need to be back full day in person just like other districts. All my kids are suffering, especially my special needs son,” district parent Melodie Beaver wrote to the board in a letter read during public comments.

Beaver told the board that her son has a 45 minute bus ride to school, is in school for three hours, and then has another 45 minute bus ride home.

“So he’s on the bus for 1.5 hours and only in school for three hours, it needs to be full time,” Beaver continued. “I hope (District) 308 can find a way to make this happen. My kids already have lost so much and I need to get back to work.

“I can’t work during school when my kids are on a preschool schedule, and it’s too costly for me to pay for daycare during school hours, and the junior high and high schoolers get out after the elementary kids. This is a huge issue affecting so many families.”

District parent Melaine McAllister was another district parent who wrote to the board calling for a return to full time in-person learning.

“After the guidelines from the ISBE and IDPH have been adjusted and loosened to students being three feet instead of six feet apart, and 50 students is okay in a given classroom, as long they are three feet apart. Also, the majority of teachers have been given the second dose of the vaccine for COVID. These three facts should let us reopen the schools.

“I want you to open the schools full-time five days a week without any further delay after spring break,” McAllister continued. “Our kids’ education, mental health and social interaction with peers is greatly suffering.”

McAllister wrote that her youngest child gets upset “at least twice” while participating in remote learning on Wednesdays, but thrives during in-person learning.

“My heart is broken seeing him get upset on Wednesdays. The teacher said he can just log off on Wednesdays, that she will email me his assignments. I don’t see that as an answer, do you?”

Parents also questioned the impact the changes would have on students in remote learning.

“It seems that there is some concern about ‘remote by choice’ students not getting attention if we move forward to five full days of school,” Angela McCumber wrote. “Let me say, nothing will change for them.

“As it is right now, one group...is sitting at home streaming with those ‘remote by choice’ kids while the other group is in the classroom. All the kids streaming are only sitting there listening since the kids in class, of course, will get more attention from the teachers.

“Going four days will change nothing for the ‘remote by choice learner’,” McCumber continued. “Nothing changes for them and they continue to stream from home. It’s not like they have a dedicated teacher that will all of a sudden be taken away. Nothing will change. Studies show that kids learn best in the classroom and that is why we have been doing it that way all these years. So, if you are going to do what is ‘best’ for the students, go five full days.”

Pamela Laatz, another district parent, continued the call for a return to full in-person learning when she addressed the board.

Laatz told the board that she has seen an increase in drug use among students, something she believes is due to remote learning.

“You guys are failing us. We need to have these kids back in school. It’s your job to listen to us parents and do what’s right for these children, and I really don’t think you are,” Laatz told the board.

Eighth grader Kayla Anderson was the sole commenter to urge the board to keep the schedules as they are.

“This year has been difficult, and that’s the least you could say. It hasn’t been easy for anyone, and I applaud you for trying to incorporate people’s opinions,” Anderson told the board. “I do feel as a student mine has been left out, when it should be what is focused on.

“The amount of changes that have been implemented this year have been extremely frustrating. It is hard for parents to keep up - how do you expect me and other students to possibly be aware...I have just finally gotten into a routine, and knowing when I get back from a week off it’s all changing is very stressful.”

Adding additional days to the school week “isn’t necessary,” Anderson continued. “It’s just some people’s preference.”

“As a student, having an option to go in and at the high risk of getting sick and possibly getting my family sick or losing my last year of junior high, is a very hard choice I have to make. Everyone has had a different experience this year....hearing you discuss going in five days plus an additional two hours to the day is an insane transition.

“Being in person is great, but for the last seven weeks keeping the current structured schedule would be way more beneficial and safer for the students than pushing us in and flipping everything upside down one final time,” she said. “We couldn’t have predicted the pandemic, but it has been a year now, and we have seen how bad it can get.”

Anderson, remarking on the number of speakers concerned for their children’s mental health, said that a “constant changing schedule is doing nothing but decreasing my mental health.”

What made Anderson the angriest, she said, “is the fact that parents’ opinions seem to be overshadowing the best options for children going into the school. I wish more students would voice their opinions, as opposed to being spoken for by parents who will never truly understand what school is like during these times.”

Phase 3 plans at all grade levels will start on April 7, upon the conclusion of the district’s spring break.