Lake County Gazette

Adlai E Stevenson High School District 125 issued the following announcement on March 12.

To The District 125 Community:

To safeguard the health and wellness of all students and staff, and after consultation with village officials and considering the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regarding limiting the gathering of large groups, we have decided to close Stevenson High School to students beginning tomorrow, Friday, March 13, in an abundance of caution and as a precautionary measure to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) illness in our community. 

To prepare for what we expect to be a prolonged closure:

• On Friday, March 13 teachers will be working collaboratively in their academic divisions preparing for our e-Learning days. Students will have a Non-School Day on Friday, March 13. 
• E-Learning Days will begin on Monday, March 16. 
• Spring Break will still be observed March 23-27. 
• Our tentative plan is to return to on-campus classes on Monday, April 6.

Here are important details all families should know:

1. As you know, we have the finest faculty of any high school in America. We are confident that they will deliver outstanding instruction to our students online using our e-Learning strategies. Please visit our e-Learning Days web page at https://www.d125.org/academics/elearning-days to familiarize yourself with our procedures.
2. Teachers will be using our learning management systems Canvas & Google Classroom to support our e-Learning days. If you are unfamiliar with Canvas, please watch the short video about it on our Parents web page at https://www.d125.org/parents. The page also contains information on signing up for a Canvas account if you have not already done so.
3. We will continue to follow our regular class schedule during e-Learning days. Teachers and students will be expected to be online and available to one another during the times when they would normally be accessible.  (e.g. Early Bird, 1st - 8:30-9:21, 2nd - 9:26-10:13, etc)  Teachers will invite students into online classes through the Conference function in Canvas, Zoom, or Google Chat.
4. A tutorial on how to use the Conference function in Canvas can be found here. A tutorial on how to use Zoom can be found here.
5. On Monday morning, March 16, students should look for an email from their teachers with specific directions for the day, and be ready to log-in to Canvas or Google Classroom at the start of each regularly scheduled class period.
6. Attendance will be taken each day, and daily instructions, directions, and activities will be sequenced by each teacher and their curriculum teams.
7. If your student has a medical appointment or some other circumstance that will interfere with participation in their classes, please send an email to your teacher. 
8. Starting Saturday, March 14, all co-curricular activities, including athletics, will be postponed or cancelled until further notice. For further information please contact your coach or club sponsor.

Students may come to the school on Friday, March 13 between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. to collect items they may have left in their lockers. Beginning Saturday, March 14, we will be closing the school building.

While we know this is an unprecedented decision, these are unprecedented times. We are committed to following CDC recommendations and to do our part in taking preventative measures to mitigate the impact of this pandemic. While we have not been notified of any staff or students being diagnosed with COVID-19, we believe the evidence that makes it increasingly clear that it is better for schools to close sooner rather than later to slow the spread of the disease. Although it seems that the coronavirus has primarily impacted people 60 and older, the reality is that even if our students are less likely to be adversely affected, they still could be carriers of the disease. Closing the school reduces the incubation effect that occurs when 4,300 students, and more than 600 adults gather in the school on a daily basis. 

The decision to close school is not one we are making lightly. We are fully aware of the complications that this will cause in the lives of our students and their families — and for our faculty and staff as well. Whatever the downsides of closing school may be, we believe that as a public school we have a shared responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff and the larger Stevenson community.

We will continue to share information and update families throughout the days and weeks ahead. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate these challenging times.

Dr. Eric Twadell

Superintendent

Original source can be found here.