Evanston Township High School will open some in-person activities in February, school officials announced Thursday.
Due to improving local health metrics, students will soon have the option to participate in athletics, fine arts, hands-on learning, mindfulness practices and other activities in-person at ETHS, the email said. Students will continue learning according to the school’s Enhanced E-learning Schedule.
“Isolation is negatively affecting many of our students,” the email said. “In a regular school year, student wellbeing and belonging are priorities at ETHS and the pandemic amplifies those priorities.”
The announcement comes shortly after the Coalition to Reopen Evanston Schools, formerly known as the Coalition to Reopen District 65 Schools, called on District 202 leaders to provide a detailed plan for returning to in-person learning. D65 superintendent Devon Horton announced just over a week ago the district is set to launch its hybrid learning model Feb. 16.
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A community group that pushed District 65 to set a date for in-person classes has launched a similar campaign to reopen Evanston Township High School.
The “Coalition to Reopen District 65 Schools” has renamed itself the “Coalition to Reopen Evanston Schools,” and in a news release today, listed ten questions they want Evanston Township High School administrators to answer about bringing children back to the building.
“We have a crisis,” said Coalition member and spokesperson Laurel O’Sullivan, a District 202 parent. “It’s time for us to reopen schools for all children.”
Both District 202 and Evanston/Skokie District 65 have been on remote learning since school began in the fall.
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D65 sets another date for in-person schooling
Under new plan schools will stay open unless regional COVID positive rate tops 12%.
Washington Elementary School. (Google Maps)
For the fourth time since school began remotely in the fall, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 has set a date for resuming in-person classes.
The latest target, according to a letter to the community from Superintendent Devon Horton, is Feb. 16.
Previous targets were postponed due to the high coronavirus positivity rate in the area, and other COVID-related metrics such as hospital bed availability.
Horton says the decision to implement the hybrid model, in which some students will be in the building while others learn at home, was “not made hastily, nor as a result of political pressuring.”
D65 to update in-person school plans next week
Devon Horton.
School Superintendent Devon Horton says Evanston/Skokie District 65 will have an update about “the launch of our hybrid learning model and associated metrics” on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
The district’s more than 7,000 students have been on remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a memo to the community issued Friday, Horton said the district’s medical advisory committee met this week “to further discuss the science and safety behind the safe reopening of our schools.” That committee was formed after demands from a parents group, the Coalition to Reopen District 65 Schools. The panel is made up of local doctors, parents, leaders of District 65 employee unions, and district administrators.