Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said the district has valiantly responded to the COVID-19 health crisis with an approach to reopening this fall that shows a continued commitment to students.
Kherat spoke Tuesday night during the district's first of three virtual town hall meetings to address concerns of families and staff. She said schools will use a hybrid approach with a blended A-B schedule of two days in school and three days off-campus.
“Honestly, it is not a perfect plan, but one that was built with safety as the utmost priority along with continuing in-person instruction for our students,” she said.
The hour-long session addressed questions from parents regarding the fall plans. More than 250 viewers watched the live stream, and the district received more than 80 questions through email submissions.
The second town hall, at 6 p.m. Wednesday, will address additional family questions, while Thursday's meeting will cover staff concerns. The full video of Tuesday’s meeting will be available on the district’s website, along with a summary of the questions and answers.
Desmoulin-Kherat said the hybrid approach offers flexibility, adding the district will have a retreat plan in place in case of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. Families also can opt for fully virtual instruction.
Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson was among the participants Tuesday and credited the district for being “very proactive.”
“The key thing to understand is, both from public health and from all of our school districts that we've been working for, the intent is the same,” said Hendrickson. “We want to keep our community healthy and safe.
“So our decisions are going to be really stemmed from that baseline understanding acknowledgement of that goal. Then from there, it's not going to be zero risk and is not going to be perfect. But I would say–just reiterating the fact–that everyone’s intention is that we try to keep our communities (as) healthy and safe as we possibly can.”
Desmoulin-Kherat said the district is working with multiple community organizations to help with child care needs tied to the reopening plans, hoping to receive grant funding. Jerry Bell, executive director of middle schools, said work continues on developing partnerships to help cover child care costs on off-campus instruction days.
“The goal is to ensure that those families, those working families that need child care, that we have the resources to help them bridge that gap,” said Bell.
Other topics discussed included social distancing and requiring all students to wear masks in class, protocols for lunch hours, how long students who test positive would have to quarantine, additional mitigation efforts, and shared use of computer devices and other technology.
“We say that, we never let a crisis go to waste,” said Desmoulin-Kherat. “So under these conditions, we will continue to utilize it as an opportunity to reimagine and to think differently and continue to provide opportunities for students and for staff.”
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