Hundreds Rally To Reopen D128 Schools

Lake Forest IL

30 September, 2020

8:40 AM

Description

LIBERTYVILLE, IL — Around 500 Libertyville and Vernon Hills parents and students rallied at Cook Park in Libertyville Tuesday evening as they called on District 128 administrators to reopen schools. During the rally, which was held from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, several parents and students spoke about the challenges surrounding remote learning. The group is calling on District 128 to "act decisively" and present a safe plan for returning to school. In a statement sent out last week, those organizing the rally said numerous other districts, including Glenbrook North and South and school districts in Barrington, Lake Forest, Crystal Lake, Palatine and Wheeling, have adopted hybrid plans with schools set to reopen in October. "It is time for school leaders to act decisively and present a plan to safely return to school and for the Board of Education to hold these leaders accountable to plans, timeline and expectations," according to the statement. During a District 128 Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, district leaders were expected to talk about proposed next steps for reopening schools. In a statement released last week by Superintendent Prentice Lea and school board President Pat Groody, officials said they understand the overall sentiment from the community is to return to full in-person learning but that will not happen "until the requirements for social distancing are relaxed." "Our initial return to in-person learning will require a hybrid model with smaller classroom sizes and the likelihood of both eSchool and asynchronous learning," according to the statement. Students returning will be required to wear masks, practice social distancing, wash hands frequently, limit large crowds and exhibit other safe practices both on and off campus. A specific return date has not yet been set, and administrators are monitoring metrics provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Lake County Department of Health as they make their decisions. "The next few weeks will be critical; however, in the absence of significant changes, we are hopeful that we can continue our staged efforts to bring larger groups of students back into our buildings and proceed to implement the next phase," according to the statement. "The current pandemic situation has been and continues to be a challenging and frustrating time for all of us. We are well aware of sentiment in the community, which is strongly in support of implementing in-person learning. Your voices have been heard. We share your sense of challenge and frustration and be assured we also want to open D128. We continue to be committed to working aggressively to return the students to schools and doing everything possible to ensure they receive the full education you expect at D128," according to District 128 officials. This is a developing story. Patch will update with more information as it comes in. SIGN UP FOR Libertyville Patch newsletters and breaking news alerts, and follow us on Facebook