Indian Prairie School District 204 is renewing its e-learning plan, which allows the district to offer remote instruction in lieu of emergency days.
The e-learning plan is presented to the school board and Regional Office of Education every three years for adoption or renewal, according to District 204 Deputy Superintendent Louis Lee. Monday’s school board meeting was the district’s third time presenting it to the board for approval, for a renewal that extends until 2028.
Lee said e-learning days are “district-wide days that … allow student instruction to continue in lieu of the district’s scheduled emergency days.” The district may use an e-learning day when school is closed for inclement weather, per its website, rather than calling off school.
Lee explained that having an e-learning plan builds “strength” around the school calendar and ensures continuity of instruction. E-learning days don’t add to the days that the district may need to make up at the end of the school year, whereas calling off school for an emergency day does.
District 204 was an early adopter of such a plan, Lee said at Monday’s school board meeting, planning for it during the 2018-19 school year and implementing it for the 2019-20 year.
“Very strategic of the board, because we all know what happened in March 2020,” Lee said, in reference to the district’s pivot to e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. “As other districts were scrambling to get (e-learning) plans, many districts were formed based on ours, because we were one of the early adopters in the state.”
Lee explained that an e-learning day is to offer five hours’ worth of instruction. On the first day the superintendent calls for e-learning, instruction is asynchronous.
Per the district’s presentation at Monday’s school board meeting, assignments are posted to Google Classroom or emailed, and staff are available via email or Google Classroom. If the superintendent decides to have a second consecutive e-learning day, there will be synchronous instruction. There’s a five-day limit on e-learning days per year, Lee said.
Indian Prairie offers a sample schedule and additional information on how e-learning days work on its website.
For e-learning days, the district must ensure all students have electronic access. Lee explained that the district has 300 hotspots for students to use, for example, but noted that something like an electricity outage on an e-learning day might require a teacher to make special arrangements for any students who lose access.
Lee said the district will continue to provide professional development opportunities to staff on remote instruction.
There was no public comment during the public hearing for the e-learning plan, and it was approved by the school board at the meeting. From there, Lee explained, the plan goes on to the DuPage Regional Office of Education for final approval.
“It doesn’t take away snow days,” District 204 Board President Laurie Donahue said on Monday, “but it gives us more options for protecting our calendar and not having to go into the summer.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
