After hearing concerns from parents and teachers Tuesday, Crete-Monee School District 201-U board members said they will take more time to consider a proposal to hold school on certain state holidays in the case of emergency closures other days.
Illinois law requires that school districts approve a waiver to hold school or schedule teacher institute, staff development or parent-teacher conferences on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the third Monday of January; President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday Feb. 12; Casimir Pulaski’s birthday, the first Monday of March; Columbus Day second Monday in October; and Veterans Day Nov. 11.
The District 201-U Calendar Committee recommended the board approve the waiver in lieu of e-learning days, which the state allows only when all students have access to devices they can use to attend classes remotely.
Ghantel Perkins, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said starting next school year, the district will stop providing pre-kindergarten and elementary school students with personal computers to take home with them daily, so e-learning days will no longer be allowed during emergency school closures.
“Some emergency closures might require adding days to the end of our calendar year,” Perkins said.
Approving the waiver for the 2026-2027 school year would prevent adding days, allowing for school to instead be held on one of the approved holidays. State law requires the district recognize the person or people honored by the holiday through instructional activities provided that day, if school is held.
“(The holidays) would remain nonattendance days unless we needed to use them because of one of those emergency closures,” Perkins said.
Perkins said the recommendation was based on surveys of teachers and parents, many of whom said, “we just like sometimes to have a regular old school snow day.”
She said elementary school teachers reported rarely assigning homework using the Chromebooks that are sent home with students.
But several teachers and parents opposed the plan Tuesday, including Brianne Werry, a district parent who works in child care.
Werry said the affected holidays provide “a brief mental reset” for herself and her child as well as some of her only opportunities to schedule daytime appointments.
“Speaking with several teachers, I have learned that they rely on these days for those same reasons,” Werry said. “I urge the school board to find other ways to fulfill the objectives proposed by this calendar change while meeting the goals of staff retention and staff well-being, along with student attendance.”
Other parents and district staff submitted messages, read by board President Maurice Brown. All three messages stressed the importance of the holidays, especially Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and Veterans Day, for many families and staff within the district, with one asking that the district not “reduce them to a scheduling inconvenience.”
The same person, who said she was a teacher and parent, also shared sentiments expressed by Werry, saying the three-day weekends tied to some of the holidays “are important opportunities for rest, reflection and preventing burnout in a profession that is already stretched thin.”
The board ultimately decided to send the proposal back to the Calendar Committee, asking the group consider feedback received by parents and teachers before holding another public hearing. Board member William Sawallisch said board members were not involved in crafting the proposal and, as none of them are district employees, don’t have a personal stake in the decision being made.
“I’m just thinking that whatever emails or complaints (are received), shouldn’t they go to the committee and then the committee would come to us with the recommendation?” Sawallisch said. “And if they come to us in a month or however long and it’s the same decision, then it’s the same decision.”
Sawallisch added he hopes board members will prioritize district employee feedback, as they would be most impacted by any changes.
“I get the parents, but the school functions as a whole,” he said.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
