Schools will end 2019-2020 year remotely

With the news that Illinois students will continue to remote-learn the rest of the school year, Du Quoin Unit District 300 has decisions to make.

Among them: How will summer school be structured? Do seniors want a traditional commencement ceremony later in the summer or a nontraditional one in May? Will the Grab & Go food program end when the school year does, or will it continue until the summer food program begins?

On Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that Illinois K-12 students will not resume in-school classes this year, saying the science tells him Illinois COVID-19 cases have not peaked yet.

Most Du Quoin students will continue to work from home until May 20, the last scheduled day of classes, Superintendent Matt Hickam said Monday. The last day for high school seniors will be determined this week.

"We've got another wave of materials going out this week that will cover through the end of next week," Hickam said. He added there will be one or two more sets of materials going out before the end of school.

"I feel for parents right now who are juggling this added responsibility of being a home-school teacher," he said.

Seniors' final grades will be based on where they stood at the end of the third quarter, Hickam added, saying semester grades are necessary so graduates have transcripts to give to colleges.

Underclassmen will likely not get a traditional letter grades for the fourth quarter, Hickam added.

Hickam said the Illinois State Board of Education has urged that students not be harmed by the remote learning experience. In Du Quoin, he said, remote learning has been designed to keep students engaged and active in the process of learning, without hurting their GPAs or class grades.

"We have been trying to keep a connection going with students and schools," he said. "We knew the longer this went on the harder it would be. We're trying to get kids to do something for the sake of learning, not for the sake of getting a certain letter grade."

In remote learning there are opportunities for learning to occur, and teachers have done as good a job as they can do, Hickam said.

"But there are limits to that and it's not a replacement for classroom instruction. Even in a best-case scenario there will still be deficits and gaps."

Hickam said their biggest worry all along has been the kids with poor or nonexistent internet access, and whose parents don't have the time or ability to home-school.

Between these kids and the ones who do have internet access and parents who are engaged with their schoolwork - the gap in achievement is widening, he said. "Our job will be to plan to address that," Hickam said.

Summer school - if the virus subsides enough to permit it - can help, Hickam said. But the district can't accommodate 1,400 students in summer school, so choices will have to be made. One option would be to prioritize summer school to address the needs of the largest group of students, he added.

Meanwhile, the effects will be felt in the fall as well.

"How do we plan for next year?" Hickam said rhetorically. "Every grade level and every course will be starting in a different place than they normally start."

Hickam said he expects there will be a small number of students who are not promoted or don't graduate, as there are every year. He doesn't expect that number will be higher than normal.

Hickam said the administration is consulting the Class of 2020 for guidance on what to do about commencement.

"If we stick to the original date (May 15) it will be a nontraditional graduation," he said. If they want to have a traditional commencement it won't happen until later in the summer, he added.

There are about 100 seniors, and the district is setting up meetings this week with the class leaders, he said.

No decision has been made about the 8th grade promotion ceremony, scheduled for May 22, Hickam said.

Another decision is coming about the food program. District 300 has been offering cold breakfasts and lunches to any child ages 0-18 since school closed on March 17; the question now is will the food stop coming on May 20 or will it continue until Du Quoin's summer food program kicks in, in June.

Hickam said he will continue sending bulletins to parents every Monday.