LFHS Board Rejects Recommendation For Fully Remote Learning

LAKE FOREST, IL — Students at public schools in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff have a chance of returning to school next month after the Lake Forest High School District 115 board unanimously rejected administrators' recommendation to start the 2020-21 school year with a full semester of remote learning.

At a nearly four-hour special meeting Monday evening, Superintendent Mike Simeck and Principal Chala Holland laid out a plan to restrict campus to staff and targeted groups of students, with some options for indoor and outdoor extracurricular activities.

"At this time, our remote option is the best option to support student learning in a safe and consistent manner," they told the board in a memo ahead of the meeting.

Simeck said most surrounding high school districts in Lake County had opted to start the year without any in-person instruction and that New Trier High School was the only peer district that was on track to start the year with a hybrid of in-person and e-learning.

"We believe this is a plan that is best for all students overall, we did not reach this decision lightly," Simeck said. "We believe it's best for our high school community as a whole as well."

The school building would be restricted to staff and a targeted group of students, with some options for indoor and outdoor extracurricular activities that have yet to be determined, the board was told.

The superintendent emphasized the risk that significant numbers of students and staff could need to miss school for quarantine or isolation following coronavirus contact tracing. And he said he expected about 20 staffers would require remote teaching accommodations and a "high number" would request leave.

"There has been an erosion of confidence on our staff," he said. "We've surveyed staff multiple times. The first of those surveys showed in May that 79 percent of our staff expected to be back, and by July, that had eroded to just over 60 percent."

Statewide Illinois teachers unions have advocated starting the school year with remote learning exclusively.

Results of a faculty survey conducted by the Lake Forest Education Association, the union's local bargaining unit, and presented by the superintendent showed more than 58 percent of teachers would like to be allowed to stay completely outside the building, 6 percent would take a leave of absence rather than return under a hybrid plan, and none would resign.

Following a period of public comment, every member of the board advocated starting the year with a hybrid model — rather than administrators' plan to maintain a remote model.

Jenny Zinser said she could not support a fully remote learning plan for the start of the school year.

"Not trying to get our students back into the classroom for at least a portion of their learning is something I simply cannot make peace with as my community's representative," Zinser said.

John Noble said he thought students in the building should have been non-negotiable. He said the community would step up to meet the challenge and asked administrators to request any additional support and resources they need to make a hybrid model work.

"I understand how hard it will be for the teachers," Noble said. "That is why we have such great teachers. Neither of these choices are excellent choices. We are picking at times the least bad in this world, but I do believe they are up to the task."

Dewey Winebrenner said the community's position has been made clear. Remote learning, he said, is no substitute for in-person learning.

"If we fail to try to get the kids back in the classroom here, then we've failed in our primary duty to the community and the kids," Winebrenner said. "We have to put the kids first, we have to get the kids back in the building."

Dr. Tom Nemickas, a surgeon who has been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic at three local hospitals, said the community has voiced its opinion and it wants to be a leader in returning to in-person learning amid the pandemic.

"I've lived what people put forward as a nightmare for the last five months," Nemickas said. "It is challenging, it is scary, but it is a doable thing and something I believe our community can rise to."

Ted Moorman said the risks of isolation from making high school students work from home outweigh those of a coronavirus outbreak.

"We can protect them. We can put them in a bunker, but their mental health will go down," Moorman said. "I would rather take a chance of COVID than take a chance of the worst outcomes that can be from a kid who's stuck in a house by himself — even a beautiful Lake Forest house."

Sally Davis emphasized administrators had been grappling with a variety of complex and sometimes conflicting logistical challenges.

"These are not easy puzzles to put in order," Davis said. "The Lake County public health requirements right now, the Illinois State Board of Education requirements are coming down as pronouncements that they are trying desperately to meet, and they change all the time."

Dave Lane told teachers and staff the board was deeply grateful for their commitment to the district's children, acknowledged their concerns and recognized their roles are not without risk.

"I am not at all in favor of e-learning," Lane said. "At the very least I want a hybrid learning model, and it's just because I value the emotional and social well-being of the children and I can't see it happening in an e-learning environment. That's it."

Lane, the board president, called for administrators to come back with a revised version of their plan for a hybrid model. The board has another meeting scheduled for Aug. 4.

"We have a very serious fiduciary role here," he said. "The community, at over 80 percent, wanted to go to hybrid but yet we got a presentation for remote. I feel uncomfortable giving a blanket approval for a hybrid plan that doesn't come back and get presented to us before it's put into play."

Officials in Lake Bluff School District 65 and Lake Forest School District 67, Lake Forest High School's two feeder districts, are set to adopt hybrid models to start the school year that would allow families the choice of fully remote learning or some in-person instruction. The District 67 board discussed it at a special board meeting Tuesday.

"For the safety and health of our students and staff, we are encouraging parents to choose the at-home remote learning option," District 65 Superintendent Lisa Leali said in a letter to families asking them to opt in or out of on-site teaching. "However, we will accommodate students to come to our schools and receive support with the remote learning platform from our teachers if they cannot participate in remote learning at home."

Watch: July 27 special meeting of the District 115 school board »