Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday she is determined to reopen Chicago Public Schools on time this fall, but do it safely, perhaps by using “alternate days, kind of a platoon” system to limit the numbers of students and teachers in schools at one time.
Declaring “students need their teachers,” Lightfoot recalled how moved she was to see video during the pandemic of an elementary school teacher who “literally drove to her student’s house, sat in the driveway” to maintain social distance and read the young girl a book.
“That’s what teachers do. They are tough and dedicated and empathetic. And particularly our youngest kids — they need that touch. They need that social immersion and learning. And the best way they can get that is being in a classroom with their peers,” Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“We have to do that in a way that is smart and safe — not only for the children, but also for the entire school community: the teachers, the janitors, the lunchroom cooks. I can envision a world, certainly by the start of school in September, that we can do that. There’s lots of different options on the table. Having alternate days. Kind of a platoon circumstance. Really limiting the number of kids that are in a classroom at any given time. We’re looking at a range of different options. But my goal is to reopen school in the fall.”
Lightfoot acknowledged the reopening plan will differ from neighborhood to neighborhood, depending on how crowded or empty school buildings are.
She promised to be creative in crafting plans in concert with neighborhood leaders, perhaps by using community centers as alternate learning sites. But she pretty much ruled out using some of the still-vacant Chicago Public Schools famously shuttered by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“There’s not that many closed buildings left. People think there’s like 30-something closed buildings. There’s now, at this point, only a small handful. And as you also know, across CPS there are some schools that are crowded and we have to have a plan for that. But there are also a lot of schools that are underutilized,” the mayor said.
“We’ve got to think creatively about the space, of course. We’ve got to think about how many people are in the schools at a time. … We have to listen to the teachers, to the principals, to the students and their parents … and invite them to be creative.
“We’re gonna look at this area by area and school by school and come up with a plan, socialize it with the entire CPS community, particularly students and their parents. But we’re only gonna do something if we can do it safely.”
The coronavirus pandemic has turned a CPS school year that was already disrupted by an 11-day teachers strike into a lost year for many students, particularly the youngest kids.
CPS has made the switch to remote learning by distributing more than 100,000 laptop computers and tablets, either from its own stockpile or devices donated by individuals and corporations.
But it’s been a difficult transition made worse by the digital divide in some of Chicago’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
Earlier this week, Lightfoot demanded Chicago internet providers stop “putting profits over people” and bridge that digital divide standing in the way of remote learning.
On Friday, the mayor acknowledged remote learning is no substitute for in-person learning.
“I really worry about [the students], particularly our youngest of children. It’s so critically important that they get the right start. And that’s hard to do for them when you’re talking about remote learning,” she said.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot is determined to open Chicago Public Schools this fall - Chicago Sun-Times
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