February 28, 2021

Important Note:  Please participate in this petition only if you are a parent of a Sycamore School District student, a Sycamore High School student or a Sycamore resident paying property tax. 

Sycamore School District Board of Directors:

This petition is signed on behalf of Sycamore School District taxpayers, parents, and Sycamore High School students who request the Sycamore Board of Education (“the Board”), uphold the Board Member Oath and Conduct, which each member stated upon joining the Sycamore School Board of Education. Specifically, we are requesting that each Board Member apply their Oath, as referenced below, to the planning and implementation of a full-time in-person school model. Further, as Superintendent Mr. Steve Wilder reports to the Board, we ask that the Board hold Mr. Steve Wilder accountable for the timely development of the full-time/in-person school model and provide transparency to the community. We view this request as important and time-sensitive.

This petition is based on findings from extensive research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” -The Declaration of Independence.

 

Why Petition?

·      To get a decision and plan from the Board and Administration of Sycamore School District to open for full-time in-person 5/day per week learning before this school year ends.

·      To have a “dry-run” of full-time in-person learning with a remote option before the current school year ends to prepare for the 2021-2022 school year.

·      Children are being negatively impacted, academically, emotionally, and mentally, by the isolation and lack of education in the Hybrid model.

·      There isn’t a concrete decision in place for a full-time in-person return to school for Sycamore School District

·      Community members have been emailing their concerns regarding the Hybrid model to the district administration and Board of Education and no action has been taken.

 

Petition Summary:

·      We request the Sycamore School Board of Education to hold Sycamore administration, specifically Mr. Steve Wilder and his staff, accountable in the development of a full-time/ in-person school model with an effective date of April 19, 2021.  This gives our District six weeks to develop a plan and allow our students to end the school year in-person, full-time.

·      Create a dedicated committee of volunteers with the common goal of developing the full-time, in-person school.

·      This petition is a positive “call-to-action” with suggestions for change and next steps.

 

What this Petition is not:

·      This petition does not in any way state or suggest that Sycamore teachers are not doing their best and do not care about our children. In fact, we have heard that many teachers prefer to go back full-time to support their students, and they recognize that teachers are “essential.”

·      This petition does not suggest that kids with medical needs should return to school in-person full-time. There should be a remote option for that population. Likewise, teachers with medical needs could be the remote teachers.

·      This petition is not calling for any Board members or Administrators to resign or be removed from office.

 

FULL PETITION:

We have outlined our concerns and comments following the framework of the Board Member Oath and Conduct, section 2:80. We find it best to use this framework, to provide context as to what the Board is responsible for, and therefore we are outlining our data and requests with a direct link to the Board’s responsibility.

As stated below in section 2:80, each Board member took an oath to:

“….foster with the Board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Sycamore School District 427; I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework.”.

We ask that the Board Members abide by the Oath they took “to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential”.

 

1.     Establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework

 

Emotional / Mental Impact 

o   Many parents have stated that their kids are experiencing emotional and mental distress from the pandemic including less interaction with friends, stress of self-learning at-home, and the lack of social interaction.

o   Recent news reports have indicated a surge in child and teenage suicides- our children are experiencing a mental health crisis.

o   The percent of our emergency department visits for mental health conditions has doubled since the onset of the pandemic Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital.

 

Academic Impact

o   Taken from the Sycamore School District’s Web page “The Sycamore Learning Community vision is to provide an ideal learning experience where students and staff are engaged and want to come back the next day”. The District and Board are not upholding this Vision.

o   All schools should aim to have students attend school in person, which is how they learn best (Healthychildren.org)

o   Sycamore parents have indicated that their children are struggling to keep up with their school work with the Hybrid model and they are falling behind academically

o   ISBE’s Phase 4 Return Plan and IDPH both allowed and encouraged schools to provide intensive time back in buildings

o   Sycamore’s current Hybrid model is failing our children and Illinois guidance for Phase 4 education in the following ways:

•  Time in the building or time with staff with direct instruction is 60% less.
•  There is limited contact or opportunities to engage with teachers on Remote learning days.
• The Hybrid schedule was the least recommended ISBE schedule due to a) lack of consistent instruction and b) it increases the risk of COVID transmission due to the likelihood children will have to engage with more adults in the community when they are not in school.  
• ISBE has provided guidance for reopening schools. “ISBE strongly encourages in-person instruction for students to the greatest extent possible while keeping health and safety as the number one priority”. 
• ISBE in conjunction with the IDPH stated that an A/B (Hybrid) model more than likely will increase the risk of COVID infection due to childcare arrangements required for families.  From ISBE: When crafting student schedules, it is important to keep childcare needs of your community in mind. It is estimated that 700,000 school-age children (ages 6-12) in Illinois reside in households where all parents work and likely require some form of out-of-school childcare. When children aged 0-6 are included, an estimated 1-1.2 million parents rely on childcare to return to work. Blended remote learning will likely increase the rate of infection and the demand for center-based and non-relative care, increasing the number of different people that children are in contact with each week and, thereby, their probability of exposure to the virus.  

o   The Sycamore Plan is not what is best for our children's education given the stressful circumstances of COVID, it decreases academic engagement by 60% for students and it places stress on families who have to work, potentially increasing the number of adults and other children that our students will come in close contact with during a week.  This is not in line with how ISBE wants our children educated during this pandemic.  

o   If the public school system is failing our children and cannot fulfill their state law mandate to educate our children, then we need to look at options on a legislative, and civil liability level.

Requested Action:

Please consider the negative impact of students not having a full-time in-person school model, and consider how our students can have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. Our students need the administration to recognize that this is the most important topic and we ask that this be treated with a sense of urgency.

 

2.     Formulate Goals & Define Outcomes –

We are beyond nearly a year since the onset of COVID-19 that occurred in February 2020; yet we have no formal outline or plan on the topic of returning to full-time in-person school. The CDC, ISBE, and IDPH all have guidelines to return children to school full-time and in-person, that we can achieve. We cannot just sit around and “hope”.  There needs to be a plan in place to begin in-person learning on April 19, 2021.

Requested Action:

·      Be transparent regarding the obstacles that Sycamore faces in returning to in-person full-time school. We suggest the Board asks Mr. Wilder for specific documentation on what each obstacle is and options to overcome each obstacle. We ask the Board to request that this outline be presented during the March 9, 2021 Board meeting.

·      Immediately develop a District committee of volunteers to oversee the development of the in-person full-time plan. Include administration, teachers, parents, the Board, local leaders- anyone that is qualified and can “think outside of the box” to get our kids to school full-time.

Addressing Obstacles and "Thinking Outside of the Box":

o   On the February 23, 2021 Board of Education meeting, Mr. Wilder stated that maintaining six feet social distancing for every student was the primary issue that prevented children from returning to school in-person full-time.

o   It is important to consider that the recommendations for schools to return to school full-time are recommendations, not mandated laws. We can find ways to return kids to school safely.

For example, while the CDC recommends maintaining 6-feet social distancing:

o   The IDPH states that maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet from other adults, and from students when feasible.

o   The goal for students and adults is to stay at least 6 feet apart. However, spacing desks at least 3 feet apart and avoiding close contact may have similar benefits for younger students--especially when they wear masks or cloth face coverings and do not have COVID-19 symptoms (Healthychildren.org)

o   If Sycamore schools cannot accommodate 6-feet social distancing for each student, consider “pod” arrangements where four students sit together, 6-feet away from the other pods. In this instance, if quarantine is necessary, only the pod of students is impacted.

o   Airlines have zero social distancing with no increase in infection rates or super spreader events.

·      Formulate goals- We suggest the Board request a full-time in-person plan to be presented to the community during the month of March, with the goal of students returning to school full-time in-person on April 19, 2021. This timeline is appropriate, giving a full six weeks from the March 9th board meeting to implement the plan. It would be a win for our community to have our students back in school before summer. It would be a win for Sycamore to avoid another senior class missing their end of High School year as a full class. It would also give us a “dry-run” for full-time in-person learning with remote option so we are fully prepared to implement this plan in the fall.

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Please review the history of the 1918 Spanish Flu and school closings, and how they handled that pandemic at that time.  In today’s numbers, 2,400,000 died including children.  COVID-19 targets the elderly, (95% of COVID deaths are 50 and older), not our children.

We appreciate the Board’s consideration in these requests and consider the involvement and partnership amongst the Board, School Administration, and Community, to the utmost importance. Our kids need you to take action to ensure a return to school in-person full-time by April 19, 2021.

Please formally respond to these requests and each action item, during the March 9, 2021 Board meeting.

Signed on behalf of Sycamore School District 427 Parents and Stakeholders for In-Person Learning.