April 18, 2024
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Woodland District 50 parents to rally for in-person schooling

Gathering to protest move to push back return to classrooms until March 30

By Lake County Journal staff report
Students get off the bus for their first day of class on Wednesday at Spaulding Elementary School in Gurnee.

Students get off the bus for their first day of class at Spaulding Elementary School in Gurnee in a previous year. This year, parents are planning to rally to return children to the classroom in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic (Photo provided)

GURNEE -- Parents in north suburban Lake County’s largest school district are mobilizing to push for a return to in-person schooling.

Woodland District 50 had planned to begin a hybrid learning model, with most students in class four days a week, some on a three-week rotation, beginning Feb. 1. At a Board of Education meeting Jan. 28, however, the board pushed off the return to school until March 30 in hopes that teachers would have time to get the COVID-19 vaccine before they return to the classroom.

The new plan would give some students just eight days in the classroom this school year.

Parents are planning a rally for 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, at the Woodland Educational Service Center at 1115 Hunt Club Road, Gurnee.

Lake County is the third-largest county in Illinois. Woodland has about 5,300 students, with 34% from low-income families.

Parents in the district report that their children are begging to return to the classroom, facing mental health challenges and regressing in both academic and social skills, according to a news release.

A Facebook group called Woodland 50 for In-Person Schooling gathered more than 400 members in just a few days.

gurneewoodland district 50