Elmhurst School Board Videos No Longer Must Watches

Elmhurst IL

12 May, 2021

8:32 AM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — School board meetings across the country are typically quiet affairs with few in attendance, other than school officials. That hasn't been the case in the last year. While in-person attendance has been discouraged at meetings, many watched the livestreams. For a time, the Elmhurst School District 205's board meetings were perhaps the biggest show in town. Those days have slipped away, a sign the pandemic is fading. For an Aug. 11 board meeting, the YouTube video was viewed more than 8,000 times. The board met for more than four hours, largely to discuss how the district would handle the new school year in a socially distanced environment. A meeting on July 14 drew more than 7,700 views. The numbers dropped for later meetings, but stayed in the thousands throughout much of the school year. The fourth most viewed meeting was in mid-December, with nearly 3,000 views. At the time, the country was suffering the second surge of the coronavirus. Local students had been remote for weeks by that point and parents were pushing the district to reopen its doors. The third most viewed meeting was March 16, with the video attracting 4,900 views. Outside the central office, where the board meets, advocates of in-person instruction held a rally, with participants chanting, "Moyer must go!" They were referring to Superintendent Dave Moyer. He was gone two weeks later, agreeing with the school board to leave three months earlier than expected. On April 12, full in-person instruction returned, reducing tensions within the community. The next regular board meeting after that attracted 267 views on YouTube. That number fell further for Tuesday's board meeting, with 214 views as of Wednesday morning. Those numbers are still better than many Elmhurst City Council meetings, where YouTube views are often less than 100. During public comment at the beginning of Tuesday's school board meeting, no one spoke. That is a far cry from meetings over the last year, where parents often denounced the board for what they saw as the slow return to in-person learning.