Northbrook and Glenview schools opened classrooms online starting Tuesday, after Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all public and private school buildings closed through March 30 in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“This is a very unusual time for our world, and we genuinely appreciate your support, flexibility, and understanding,” Northbrook/Glenview School District 30 Superintendent Brian Wegley said in a news release.
The move impacts a total of nearly 16,000 students enrolled in about two dozen schools in the two north suburbs.
Glenbrook High School District 225, which includes Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South high schools, canceled school starting Monday through the end of spring break, which begins March 23 and ends March 30. The district’s more than 5,200 students will begin learning online, also called e-learning, on March 31. All athletic competitions and practices have been suspended until April 6, officials said.
Many of the elementary and middle school students will begin learning from home this week, as Northbrook School District 28, West Northfield School District 31, Northbrook/Glenview School District 30, Northbrook District 27, East Maine School District 63 and Glenview District 34 all move to online instruction Tuesday and Wednesday.
Many schools have provided e-learning devices, like Chromebooks, and some districts, like SD31, SD28 and SD63, are offering a limited number of hot spots for students who don’t have internet access at home.
“This is our first time implementing e-learning, and we ask for your patience as we navigate this new learning model,” Wegley said in the release. “We are all in this together, and let’s keep learning and handling this situation as well as we can as it evolves and eventually passes.”
As canceling classes at school buildings means students don’t have access to breakfast and lunch meals provided by the district, some districts are working to accommodate families.
SD34 families will be able to pick up meals on a “grab-and-go basis” at Springman Middle School, 2710 Central Road, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tuesday to Friday. SD31 families can use a form
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to enroll in a food pick-up program. SD28 will deliver lunches to students who qualify for free and reduced meals, spokeswoman Terry Ryan said.The Northfield Township Food Pantry, at 2550 Waukegan Road in Glenview, is available for families who need extra assistance, school district officials said.
District officials have said they hope to re-open school buildings on March 31, but are working with the collaborative Glenview Northbrook Coronavirus Response team to determine what will be feasible.
“As this is a constantly evolving situation, we will evaluate our collaborative decisions with the best and most recent information that we have,” SD34 spokeswoman Cathy Kedjidjian said in an email.