Here's What District 61 Is Planning For New Year

DARIEN, IL — Like many school districts, Darien School District 61 is planning a blended approach for the new school year. The district is dividing its students into two groups.

Under the plan, half the students will undergo 2½ hours of in-person instruction in the morning, while the other half will get remote instruction during those hours. The reverse will happen in the afternoon.

The school board voted 4-1 for the plan, with two members absent.

The district plans to let parents choose whether their children go to entirely e-learning. According to a recent survey, more than a quarter of parents prefer this option, Robert Langman, District 61's superintendent, said in an interview.

The district is looking at hiring a third-party vendor for the fully remote students. That's because the district doesn't have the money to buy camera equipment for every classroom or add more staff, Langman said.

Tuesday's school board meeting was livestreamed through Zoom, a video conferencing program. Because the district lacks a paid Zoom account, its capacity was 100 people, Langman said. More people than that wanted to access the meeting, so some were blocked, he said.

Langman said the board's policy does not typically allow for posting meeting video on the district's website. And he said the district wasn't planning to post this meeting online because a quarter of the meeting was lost through technical issues. But he said the district was now hoping to post it.

The first day of school is Aug. 24. Last year, the district served nearly 1,500 elementary and middle school students, according to the Illinois Report Card.