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10 | March 26, 2020 | The wilmette beacon School<br />
wilmettebeacondaily.com<br />
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New Trier D203 Board of Education<br />
Officials report ‘good first day’ of remote<br />
learning despite unprecedented circumstances<br />
Aaron Dorman<br />
Freelance Reporter<br />
Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 9 days ago<br />
“[This was] certainly<br />
nobody’s first choice.”<br />
That was how Peter Tragos,<br />
assistant superintendent<br />
for curriculum and<br />
instruction, acknowledged<br />
the situation for New Trier<br />
District 203 at the March<br />
16 Board meeting, but<br />
all things considered, he<br />
declared the district’s response<br />
“pretty darn good.”<br />
In just over a week,<br />
amidst the impacts of the<br />
COVID-19 outbreak and<br />
subsequent emergency<br />
closures, the district has<br />
had to react fast and institute<br />
a remote learning<br />
program. Even before Illinois<br />
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced<br />
all public schools<br />
to be closed from March<br />
17-30, New Trier, like<br />
many other districts, was<br />
making contingency plans.<br />
Tragos laid out the truncated<br />
timeline for moving<br />
more than 4,000 students<br />
and hundreds of staff to a<br />
virtual platform.<br />
On March 6, after several<br />
days of departmental<br />
planning, the district instituted<br />
a “call to action” to<br />
prepare in case of canceling.<br />
The following school<br />
day, staff got a crash<br />
course in using the remote<br />
learning tools with a technology<br />
specialist team.<br />
Schools closed for the first<br />
time March 13 so teachers<br />
could create their canvas<br />
pages and the Trevian Remote<br />
Learning system.<br />
“This is not how we<br />
would decide to teach if<br />
we could, but we are doing<br />
our best to adapt to the situation<br />
and provide our students<br />
the best opportunity<br />
to learn,” Tragos said. The<br />
board highlighted several<br />
student projects including<br />
an architecture class’ CO-<br />
VID-19 challenge to design<br />
a local health clinic,<br />
and some student “macro<br />
photography” samples.<br />
The remote learning<br />
schedule is designed to<br />
mimic a regular school<br />
day as much as possible.<br />
Students are expected to<br />
check the Canvas pages<br />
by 8 a.m. and complete<br />
assignments by 3 p.m. in<br />
the afternoon. Teachers are<br />
still expected to take “class<br />
attendance” and be available<br />
throughout the day for<br />
communication.<br />
Tragos praised the<br />
thoughtful and collaborative<br />
effort of the entire<br />
community for helping<br />
provide a sense of normalcy.<br />
The e-learning<br />
curriculum was guided by<br />
the Illinois State Board of<br />
Education and the North<br />
Cook Intermediate Service<br />
Center. Logistical issues<br />
include how to help special<br />
needs students with<br />
e-learning, and how to effectively<br />
use online tools<br />
like slack or zoom.<br />
“Where are we?” Tragos<br />
asked. “A good first day.<br />
But not a perfect one.”<br />
For now, there is no<br />
centralized portal where<br />
parents can provide comments.<br />
Superintendent Dr.<br />
Paul Sally acknowledged<br />
surveying students and<br />
teachers would be an ongoing<br />
challenge. Tragos also<br />
pointed to the challenge of<br />
“testing integrity” and how<br />
to create an environment<br />
using software that could<br />
mimic classroom settings<br />
as closely as possible.<br />
“I don’t think it (the online<br />
learning portal) will<br />
mimic the classroom process,”<br />
Tragos said. “Teachers<br />
are identifying what is<br />
important for students to<br />
know and grades and tests<br />
are secondary for now.”<br />
Superintendent Sally<br />
also anticipated student<br />
outcomes would have to<br />
look different going forward.<br />
The rest of the board<br />
expressed pride in how<br />
the district has handled<br />
the situation. Board Vice<br />
President Marc Glucksman,<br />
who attended the<br />
meeting remotely, said that<br />
students have gone from<br />
having “healthy skepticism”<br />
to “engagement” to<br />
“waiting to see what will<br />
happen tomorrow.”<br />
“We’re not inventing<br />
this alone,” Board President<br />
Cathleen Albrecht<br />
said. Albrecht noted the<br />
somewhat fortuitous timing<br />
the district had, in that<br />
the upcoming spring break<br />
allows for a much-needed<br />
pause in the educational<br />
upheaval.<br />
How much longer after<br />
that will the schools be<br />
closed? Tragos hoped for<br />
more information soon.<br />
“We are just waiting on it<br />
like everybody else,” Tragos<br />
said. “At this point, I<br />
don’t know what the process<br />
is going to look like.”<br />
For the board itself, future<br />
meetings will most<br />
likely be virtual; the March<br />
16 meeting had already<br />
taken COVID-19 related<br />
measures, including spacing<br />
out public seating and<br />
live-streaming the session.<br />
Full story at Wilmette-<br />
BeaconDaily.com.