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Unit 5 Preps For More In-Person Learning, Hears From Esports Team

Unit 5 announced plans this week to expand in-person instruction for students in grade 6-12 starting April 5. 

Sixth grade students will begin the transition from hybrid to in-person on March 30.

Superintendent Kristen Weikle said the district made its decision after discussions with the teachers union, McLean County Health Department (MCHD), and other in-person districts. 

Unit 5 also relied heavily on feedback from families and staff gathered through surveys. 

“We had a great response from the families,” said Weikle, speaking Wednesday night at the school board meeting held at Normal Community West High School. “We had over 2,800 families respond to the survey, and probably 12-1,300 within the first four hours of sending out the survey.”

According to the survey results, 84% of district parentswant their 6-12 students in school four days a week.

Wednesdays will remain remote instruction days. Weikle said 6-12 educators are responsible for teaching both in-person learners and those students who have chosen to remain completely remote. 

“We know that’s a unique challenge,” she said. “We need to keep Wednesday as a remote instructional day so teachers have a day they can connect fully with our remote students.” 

Esports team

During public comment, the board heard from two members of the Unit 5 Esports team. Luke Sherman and Tyler Van Draska, both students at Normal West, said the team was struggling to find funding and to access school resources. 

The students said a lack of funding makes the future of the team uncertain. 

Van Draska said coach Jarrod Rackauskas told the team he was willing to donate his stipend, totaling just over $500 a season, to help fund the team. But that amount alone “isn’t adequate to keep our club funded,” Van Draska said. 

“How can we as a community and a school board work for getting more equitable funding for clubs for the schedule B and for our coaches?” he asked the board. 

Schedule B is a classification that includes extracurricular sports and activities, including baseball, basketball, and football. 

Parent Ralph Whittsitt, whose son competes on the Esports team, said just because the sport “doesn’t fit into a nice neat little box” that makes it easy to categorize doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. 

Whittsitt noted that 175 colleges and universities have varsity Esports teams, including Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State universities. He said many institutions offer partial and full scholarships in the sport. 

But beyond that, Wittsitt said, the team presents an important opportunity to build community. 

Board member Alan Kalitzky acknowledged the sport was unconventional by many standards, but lamented the team’s lack of support. 

“We all long for that sense of community, and camaraderie, and belonging. To say that individual students have found their place and we can’t help continue to support that, always hurts us,” he said. 

Kalitzky said it was the kind of reality that the school board often has to face. 

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Sarah Nardi is a WGLT reporter. She previously worked for the Chicago Reader covering Arts & Culture.
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