Amboy Community Unit School District No. 272 had approximately 20% of families select remote learning at the start of the school year, but has successfully continued in-person education for the rest of the students. | Adobe Stock
Amboy Community Unit School District No. 272 had approximately 20% of families select remote learning at the start of the school year, but has successfully continued in-person education for the rest of the students. | Adobe Stock
As schools across Illinois continue to adjust to COVID-19 concerns and restrictions while educating students, the response has been far from uniform.
However, there are some districts that have still managed to strike a balance between safety and education.
At Amboy Community Unit School District No. 272, a rural district with 705 students, one adjustment has been how teachers’ professional development time is spent, district Superintendent Joshua Nichols told the Northwest Illinois News.
“We’ve changed professional development to provide teachers with more planning time to prepare for the students who are remote learning,” Nichols told the Northwest Illinois News.
With the district spread out over 205 square miles — and encompassing towns ranging in size from 10 to 2,400 people, Amboy Community Unit School District is geographically one of the largest in the state, according to the district website.
Approximately 20% of families in this very rural school district chose the remote learning option at the start of the academic year, Nichols told the Northwest Illinois News.
“We provided both a six-hour in-person five-days a week option as well as a remote learning option,” Nichols told the Northwest Illinois News in an email.
The school district has had no problems maintaining a full-time, in-person schedule for the 80% of families who have chosen that option, with the district engaging in safety practices such as placing junior high students into cohorts, Nichols told the Northwest Illinois News.
The district has also implemented the recommendations of the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Bureau of Education in order to ensure against any possible transmission of the novel coronavirus in their schools.
The district plans to “continue providing both options as long as we can safely do so for both students and staff,” Nichols told the Northwest Illinois News.
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