Despite the COVID-19 pandemic bringing unprecedented hardships to village residents, schools and businesses, 2020 also marked the completion of a major flood control project, a peaceful protest for racial justice and the approval of a long-awaited development downtown.
‘Our students are so incredibly resilient’
Responding to mounting concerns as COVID-19 rates began to spike across Illinois, officials at New Trier High School, Wilmette School District 39 and local private schools, including Loyola Academy, shuttered school buildings under Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order in March, and shifted to online, remote learning for students.
“Based on the rapidly evolving situation with COVID-19 and recommendations from public health officials to limit public gatherings, we are canceling school for students tomorrow, March 13,” Superintendent Paul Sally said in an March 12 email to parents.
“While we have no confirmed COVID-19 cases in the district, we are shifting to our remote learning plan in an abundance of caution,” Sally said.
While officials at New Trier and other area schools initially anticipated reopening classrooms following spring break, the raging virus across the state, nation and world soon dashed that early optimism, and school buildings remained closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.
Wilmette School District 39 students began the new school year this fall with a brief period of remote learning before moving to a phased, hybrid approach for in-person instruction.
At Wilmette School District 39, Superintendent Kari Cremascoli said in September that the district’s 3,500 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade started the new school year with one week of remote learning, before moving to a gradual return to in-person instruction.
Well aware that educators would be facing an unusual school year, the district’s teachers and support staff received training in everything from social–emotional learning and “trauma-informed instruction” for students, to how to deliver synchronous Zoom lessons and the basics of COVID-19-era health and safety protocols.
“Everything is new and a little bit different for all of us this school year, but a lot is very much the same, like our connections between students and teachers, which I’m most proud of,” Cremascoli said in September.
“Our students are so incredibly resilient, which is really inspiring, and we also have the very best teachers,” Cremascoli said, adding: “They’re energetic and enthusiastic about learning, and we’re so fortunate to have students and families that are so dedicated to education.”
‘Local restaurants have been hit particularly hard’
Wilmette restaurant owners struggling in the wake of the state’s recent tightening of COVID-19 restrictions on indoor dining might be eligible for economic relief through a new village program.
The roughly $170,000 economic relief program, which was approved by the Wilmette Village Board in November, is intended to provide financial support to eligible village restaurants suffering from stricter mitigations recently set by the state for suburban Cook County, including a ban on indoor dining and reduced capacity and party sizes for outdoor dining, officials said in a statement.
“Local restaurants have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, and with new restrictions that eliminate indoor dining as we move into winter months, our restaurant community needs support more than ever,” Wilmette Village President Bob Bielinski said.
More Top Picks Best Glasses For Fluorescent Light Sensitivity
‘Innocent people are being killed every day, and it’s really sad’
Nearly 2,000 people joined forces in downtown Wilmette in early June at a walk and rally decrying racism and oppression in honor of George Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked nationwide outrage last summer.
The peaceful “Wake Up Wilmette! Walk To End Racism” protest, attracted a multi-generational crowd of residents including Wilmette resident Becky Pumphrey, 40, who collected canned goods and toiletries for the a food depository, with help from her daughter, Madeleine, a fifth grader at Highcrest School.
Madeleine, who has accompanied her mother at other social justice rallies, said: “Innocent people are being killed every day, and it’s really sad.”
‘Being able to start in April instead of June accelerated the schedule, which was a great thing for residents’
As construction crews in August wrapped up the first phase of Wilmette’s $68 million Neighborhood Stormwater Storage Improvement Project, officials acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had expedited the work’s completion ahead of schedule.
While construction was initially not expected to begin until June, the COVID-19-related closure of Highcrest Middle School in mid-March provided crews with a two-month head start on breaking ground on the project at the Community Playfield, 702 Locust Road.
“Being able to start in April instead of June accelerated the schedule, which was a great thing for residents,” Brigitte Berger-Raish, Wilmette’s Director of Engineering and Public Works, said in August.
The first of a three-phase program aimed at reducing flooding for residents living west of Ridge Road, the summer project included the installation of an underground vault that can hold 6.6 million gallons of stormwater, and which was constructed beneath the playfield, Berger-Raish said.
“Once the seeding is done this fall, we’re expecting the park will be back open to enjoy next spring,” Berger-Raish said.
Retail, housing development
A North Shore developer’s plan to build a residential and retail project featuring 109 luxury apartments and street-level retail venues was green-lighted by the Wilmette Village Board in November, with plans to break ground on the downtown Village Center project in 2021.
Developer Optima, Inc., which has offices in Glencoe and Scottsdale, Ariz., plans to transform the site at 1210 Central Ave. into a transit-oriented development across the street from the Metra commuter train station on Green Bay Road.
Given the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, village officials said they see an opportunity in the new development.
“From the village’s standpoint, increasing the density downtown and throughout the village will ultimately help find a way to be able to stay afloat by bringing in new residents who are loyal to their local businesses,” John Adler, Wilmette’s community development director, said in November.
Twitter @kcullotta