COVID-19 Updates and Resources/Fall 2020 Planning
School districts were informed this week that the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) will be announcing guidance for for the fall by the end of this month. In the meantime, our planning team will continue working on multiple scenarios for a safe and equitable return to school. We plan to share our recommendations and details of these plans during our July 14 school board meeting.
For more information and resources related to COVID-19, or to learn more about our Fall 2020 planning, please visit https://www.op97.org/updatecenter/2020-21-planning.
District 97 to Continue Weekly Meal Distributions During Summer Break
We are pleased to announce that we will continue holding weekly meal distributions through Monday, Aug. 17, to ensure that all District 97 students have access to food during summer break.
Pick-ups will be held every Monday, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Longfellow Elementary School (for Julian and feeder schools), 715 S. Highland Ave., and Brooks Middle School (for Brooks and feeder schools), 325 S. Kenilworth Ave. Meals are available to any District 97 family in need.
If you have any questions, please contact our food service coordinator, Carla Ellis, at [email protected].
Free Virtual Mental Health Wellness Checks for Students
Because our students’ mental health needs don’t stop on the last day of school, we’re still here for you! District 97’s school psychology and social work departments collaborated to offer free access to virtual mental health wellness checks during the summer. Scheduled 20-minute appointments are available Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
If you think your child would benefit from an empathetic ear and a few coping and self-care tips, please sign them up here for a 20-min appointment (or contact [email protected] if you do not have a Gmail account). Prior to the appointment, you will receive a link for the video call. If your child is experiencing an immediate mental health crisis, please do not use this service and instead call the Thrive 24-Hour Crisis Hotline at 708-383-7500. You may also refer to this resource guide created by the District 97 Social Work Department.
Remote Learning Feedback
As part of our planning for the 2020-21 school year, the district's Learning Models team has been reviewing feedback shared by students, staff and families about their experiences with remote learning during Spring 2020. The team collected data and conducted outreach to a wide variety of stakeholder voices with the ultimate goal of improving the support and instruction we provide to students moving forward.
During the June 16 meeting of the District 97 Board of Education, school psychologists Rike Neubert and Dr. Becky Perez shared a brief overview of what the team has learned. The presentation is available here. School-level summaries of the feedback we received from our remote learning family survey in April are available at https://www.op97.org/news/1683553/remote-learning-feedback-from-spring-2020
Thank you to all of our stakeholders who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences with the district!