Evanston Township High School To Stay Remote Until Further Notice

EVANSTON, IL — Remote learning will continue indefinitely at Evanston Township High School, officials said. Administrators determined the risks associated with a plan to bring nearly 1,500 people back into the school building at a time were too high, making it impossible to commit to a return to limited in-person instruction after Labor Day.

Donning and doffing custom-made face masks emblazoned with the ETHS Wildkits logo, a panel of administrators addressed evolving plans for the start of the 2019-20 school year during livestreamed comments Wednesday evening in response to topics billed as the most commonly asked queries and areas of concern.

Superintendent Eric Witherspoon said the district had tried its best to develop a reopening plan that would keep everyone safe and alive. But the idea proposed at the July 13 board meeting — offering a hybrid model of remote and in-person learning in early September that families could opt into — was no longer tenable.

"We had a lot of staff that were highly fearful of coming in, and that matters hugely to us," Witherspoon said. "But we also learned there was an outbreak at Lake Zurich High School."

Earlier this month, summer sports camps were cancelled after 36 students at the Lake County school — several of them with no symptoms — tested positive for the coronavirus. Witherspoon said contact tracing showed most of the teens contracted the virus while attending social events

Shifting conditions around the country and continually updated research into the nature of COVID-19 and its spread require caution, he added.

"This nation is on fire right now, and even though things look really good right here in Evanston at the moment, that's seven weeks out. We cannot commit to what the conditions are going to be here," he said.

Witherspoon said the district has not yet determined what metrics it will use to determine when it is safe for students and teachers to return to school. With employees commuting from as far as Wisconsin, the longtime superintendent said he is concerned about the prevalence of coronavirus beyond the district's borders.

Assistant Superintendent and Principal Marcus Campbell said families would be notified more than a week ahead of any adjustments to plans to only offer remote learning.

"We're just going to be monitoring conditions as they arise, and we will give advance notice, about 10 days, if there is a shift," Campbell said. "Please know that we will be monitoring conditions and people will have advance notice to plan for whatever context and situation we find ourselves in. So please be flexible and adaptable and work with us during this time."

An earlier draft reopening plan required families to elect by the end of July whether they wanted their student to have fully remote learning or the hybrid model for the first few months of the school year.

"The risks and restrictions for hybrid just don't benefit student learning at this time, which is why we're not going to do it," Campbell said.

Campbell said teachers have received instruction during the summer on how to improve their remote learning classes, including how to establish relationships with students from afar.

"We have dedicated a part of our e-learning academy in preparing teachers to making these kinds of connections in our e-learning environment," he said. "We also are spending the summer developing a toolkit to build social-emotional learning into an e-learning environment."

Taya Kinzie, associate principal for student services, said there would be remote resources for managing mental health challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We will be providing lessons and trainings on how to cope with our feelings, including frustration around isolation, depression, anxiety and how to build our resilience," Kinzie said. "We will be providing social work services and group interventions, support groups and support from our new mindfulness coaches, to help students and staff engage in mindfulness, and we will be teaching students how to ask for help, just to name a few examples."

Pete Bavis, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said students need consistency to thrive. He said resuming the practice of letter grades for students would allow administrators to better monitor and support students and teachers.

"While a return to grading is important, it's equally important to remember that we're in the midst of a pandemic," Bavis said. "That said, returning to a traditional grading scale communicates that we are returning to school. It's incredibly different than the spring. We're going to return to an A to F grading scale, but more importantly in this environment, quality, timely feedback is a critical part of learning."

The district released the results of three questions from a poll conducted of 478 employees. It showed a quarter of respondents would be unable to come to work if other schools and daycare facilities were closed. It also showed nearly 40 percent of responding staff would be unable to come to work if public health authorities advised against it due to vulnerabilities to serious complications.

The data released by the district did not show how many faculty members would seek to opt out of in-person instruction if given the choice, but it did include concerns expressed by faculty and staff.

Some respondents noted that school administrators had admitted to drafting a communication that would be issued in the event of the death of a student or staff member, while others had questions about how a hybrid model might work. Many worried about how they would be able to effectively support students and the well-being of their own families at the same time.

A poll of 1,900 parents and guardians indicated 73.5 percent of families were prepared to send their student to in-person classes under state safety and social distancing guidelines. Bavis said the results of that poll were "outdated very soon after it was sent out" on June 30.

Witherspoon said he recognized there is a range of different opinions and emotional responses in the school community about the reopening plan as it stands. Some people, he said, were probably angry or sad. Some were likely not very concerned at all. Others might feel courageous and ready to meet any challenge.

"I can't even imagine all the emotions you've gone through and are going through," he said.

The public health and political response to the COVID-19 pandemic has varied significantly between U.S. states and dramatically between nations over the past several months. Witherspoon did not directly address actions by political leaders or their impact. Instead, he emphasized the individual responsibility of students and staff to continue to minimize community spread of the virus.

"So students and staff — because our staff is spread out for dozens of miles — please follow the guidelines," Witherspoon said. "When we are able to start to move to a hybrid, we have to have all done what we must do to know that we're not going to bring it in."

The superintendent, who has led the one-school district for nearly 15 years, said he was heartbroken by the impact of the virus on the high school and American society so far.

"What has happened to this country, to this region and to ETHS breaks my heart. I know it's caused by a virus, that you want to blame something," the superintendent said.

"Well, we can blame the virus, but, you know, where does that get us? That is what has caused this, but there's nothing to lash out at. There's nothing to argue down, because this virus will respond as it's going to respond, and human emotions aren't going to change it," he said. "But it doesn't change the fact we have emotions."

Watch: July 22 "E-Town Hall" with a panel of Evanston Township High School District 202 Administrators »

Earlier: Students To Return To Evanston Township High School In 4 Groups