West Cook News

River Forest School District 90 has announced it is planning blended learning but has not yet announced a full in-person schedule. 

School Superintendent Ed Condon issued a letter to families, staff and educators saying that they expected to return to a blended form of in-person and online learning in January.

“The current remote learning ‘adaptive pause’ extension in District 90 is scheduled to continue through Friday, December 11,” Condon wrote. “This pause is intended to mitigate risk when a school district faces heightened levels of COVID transmission and has been recommended by both the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the District 90 Community Advisory Panel.”

The announcement comes after families in District 90 started a petition supporting in-person learning beginning next month.

The petition was created by the River Forest community to show there was community support for in-school learning. They want schools to return to in-person learning on January 19. So far, there are 456 signatures. 

The petition says school children aren’t the cause of COVID-19 surges and the schools can take precautions to keep students safe.

“Our children are falling behind, socially, emotionally and academically,” the petition states.

The petition claims that the children will suffer more the longer schools are closed. They also argue that the continuing isolation associated with in-home learning will increase social anxiety. 

Steve Lefko, who ran for school board in 2019, said advocating children’s education is important.

“There’s a lesson in this for all of us on the importance of advocating for your child’s education,” Lefko told West Cook News. “Too much distance has grown between parents and your public school. Get close, know what’s happening, know who’s making decisions, what’s being taught and how. They’re your schools. They can define a community and we need to work together to get schools and public education headed in the right direction.”

Condon wrote in the email the purpose of the adaptive pause was due to the Thanksgiving holiday and to make sure the virus did not spread more.

“After the prolonged period of remote instruction, it is requested that all our students and families practice patience as we return to in-person instruction,” Condon wrote. “With some students continuing to participate remotely in the Full Remote Learning Option and other students physically in class at the same time, there will be many adjustments for everyone to make.”

The school opened for one day earlier this year but closed the next day in a move supported by Condon. 

Controversial former school board president Ralph Martire is still active in education as current head of the Oak Park and River Forest High School board.

In his day job, Martire runs a think tank funded by education labor unions. 

Teacher unions have largely been against returning to the classroom.

The school district has more than 1,400 students.